en Original Article Original Article - Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is related to obesity and to major metabolic alterations including both insulin resistance and beta-cell dysfunction. Ghrelin was identified as the endogenous ligand for the growth hormone secretagogue (GHS) receptor. The actions of ghrelin are carried out through interaction with specific receptor, named GHS-R. Objective: In a case-control study, we compared the expression of ghrelin and GHS-Rs mRNA by Quantitative Real-time PCR method in studied groups in order to determine the role of ghrelin and GHS-Rs in pathogenesis of PCOS. Materials & Methods: Follicular fluid samples were obtained at oocyte collection from 22 patients undergoing IVF-ET as control and 11 patients were diagnosed as having PCOS. Total RNA was extracted from isolated follicular fluid cells and 2�g RNA was diluted and reverses transcribed using random primers and Superscript II. Specific primers for the ghrelin, GHS-R1a and GHS-R1b were designed. Samples were run in triplicate on an ABI Geneamp 5700 sequence detection system. They were subjected to 40 cycles of amplification under condition 92�C- 20s and 62�C-1min using 3�l diluted cDNA (1:7), 10�l 2X SYBR green, 3�l diluted cDNA. ?-actin mRNA was assayed and then normalized to total RNA measurements for each sample. Results: Age, weight and resulting pregnancies did not vary between PCOS and non-PCOS patients, whereas the BMI and serum testosterone level of PCOS were significantly higher than non-PCOS patients. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR showed that mRNA for ghrelin and GHS-R 1b were detectable in follicular fluid cells from all patients. We failed to find mRNA for GHS-R 1a in any of follicular fluid cells. There were no significant difference in ghrelin and GHS-R1b mRNA expression levels between PCOS and non-PCOS groups. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that ghrelin and ghrelin receptors may not be considered risk factors for pathogenesis of PCOS. PCOS, Ghrelin, GHRs 68 73 http://ijrm.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-100-48&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Hossein Hadinedoushan Yes Robert Normann No