Common variation of the CYP17 gene in Iraqi women with endometriosis disease

Common variants among genes coding for enzymes in sex steroid biosynthetic pathways may influence the risk of endometriosis in Iraqi women patients in the last years. Cytochrome P450c17a1 (CYP17), a gene that codes for a key enzyme (cytochrome P450c17a1) in a rate-limiting step of estrogen biosynthesis has attracted considerable attention as an important gene for endometriosis. To evaluate the relationship between common genetic variations in CYP17 and endometriosis risk and determine the main effects of those variations on the gene expression. A women-based case control study of Iraqi women aged range (23–46), the associations between selected single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the CYP17 gene and endometriosis diagnosis in fifty women and thirty disease-free controls were evaluated. The study found a significant association (P ≤ 0.01)between endometriosis and selected SNPs of CYP17 gene, with the homozygous genotype conferring decreased risk. A highly significant difference (P ≤ 0.01) in CYP17 gene expression from women with versus without endometriosis and increased by 1.56-fold in women with endometriosis. These findings suggest that variation in or around CYP17 may be associated with endometriosis development in the Iraqi women.