Context: The root causes of many adverse pregnancy outcomes are not well understood, but there is growing evidence that both the environmental and genetic factors play an important role. The present study aims to investigate the association of polymorphisms of GSTM1 and GSTT1 genes with adverse reproductive outcome in steel industry workers. Methods: The study populations consisted of 150 male steel industry workers in the age group of 18-55 years and 146 males in the same age group and socio economic status and not occupationally exposed to any chemical agents were studied for the reproductive outcome in their spouses. The information on reproductive outcome including the number of pregnancies, fertility, infertility, live births, spontaneous abortions, premature births, neonatal deaths, still births etc. was collected. Blood samples were collected, DNA extraction and genotyping was done for GSTM1 and GSTT1 using multiplex PCR.The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of the Centre and written informed consent was obtained from all the participants of the study. The results were analyzed statistically using the appropriate chi square test and logistic regression analysis to find the significance of the association of GSTM1 and GSTT1 polymorphisms with reproductive outcome in steel industry workers and control subjects. Results: The results showed an increase in the frequency of abortions, still births, premature births and neonatal deaths in the workers with homozygous deletions of GSTM1 and GSTT1 but the increase was not statistically significant compared to that of active GSTM1 and GSTT1 variants. Conclusion: The results did not provide any evidence for the influence of polymorphisms of GSTM1 and GSTT1 genes on the reproductive outcome. Neither GSTM1 nor GSTT1 null variants were associated with adverse reproductive outcome.
