Background: We aimed to evaluate the influence of the Gly972Arg variant of the insulin receptor substrate-1 gene (IRS-1) and the Gly1057Asp variant in IRS-2 on insulin resistance and glucose tolerance in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and healthy controls.
Methods: Genotypes, allelic frequencies, indexes of insulin resistance, glucose tolerance and hormone profiles were studied in a large sample of Spanish PCOS (n = 103) women compared with a control group (n = 48) of healthy women matched for body mass index.
Results: No differences in genotype or allelic frequencies were found between PCOS patients and healthy controls. When considering control subjects and PCOS patients as a whole, IRS-1 Arg972 carriers also presented with increased fasting insulin (133 +/- 60 versus 95 +/- 67 pmol/l, P = 0.008) and insulin resistance measured by homeostasis model assessment (4.3 +/- 2.1 versus 3.1 +/- 2.4, P = 0.009) compared with subjects homozygous for Gly972 alleles. These differences were even higher when restricting the analysis to PCOS patients. Subjects homozygous for the Gly1057 allele of IRS-2 presented with increased 60 and 90 min oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) glucose levels compared with carriers of one or two Asp1057 alleles (7.9 +/- 2.1 versus 7.1 +/- 2.1 mmol/l, P = 0.042 and 7.0 +/- 2.1 versus 6.0 +/- 1.8 mmol/l, P = 0.014), and a similar tendency was observed for 120 min OGTT glucose levels.
Conclusions: The Gly972Arg in IRS-1 and Gly1057Asp in IRS-2 polymorphisms influence glucose homeostasis in premenopausal women, but are not associated with PCOS.