The association between mitochondrial DNA copy number, telomere length, and tubal pregnancy

Abstract Growing evidence has demonstrated association between the occurrence of tubal ectopic pregnancy (TP) and oxidative stress (OS) status, in which mitochondria and telomeres play important roles. However, little is known about the underlying correlation between TP and the mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn) or telomere length (TL) abnormalities. In this study, we found OS level was elevated in TP patients. We hierarchically detected the relative mtDNAcn and TL of villi from normal pregnancy (NP) and TP samples according to different gestational age, fetal sex, maternal age, and BMI. The results revealed that the relative mtDNAcn was significantly lower in the villi in the TP group compared with the NP cohort, which was negatively correlated with OS status. In the NP group, the mtDNAcn in the female subgroup was apparently lower than that in the male subgroup, while no statistical difference was found in the mtDNAcn in the TP group between the female and male subgroups. Moreover, the relative TL in the TP group was at a similar level to the NP group, and no statistical correlation was observed between relative TL and OS level. In summary, our findings indicate that the abnormal level of mtDNAcn rather than TL is correlated with TP, which provides new insights into the mechanism of TP.