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Among women who undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF), ovarian responses to stimulation with exogenous follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) vary widely. Might genetic alteration of the FSH receptor account for some of this variability, thereby playing a causative role in infertility? To investigate this possibility, researchers studied high and low FSH responders in a population of women who underwent IVF at a single clinic. In 35 participants, the investigators assessed FSH receptor variants that were expressed by ovarian cumulus cells collected during egg aspiration.
More than one third of participants expressed one of four splicing variants of the FSH receptor in addition to the wild-type form; all variants affected the extracellular domain …