Identification of embryonic chromosomal abnormality using FISH-based preimplantation genetic diagnosis

Objective: Embryonic chromosomal abnormality is one of the main reasons for in vitro fertilization (IVF) failure. This study aimed at evaluating the value of Fluorescence in-situ Hybridization (FISH)-based Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) in screening for embryonic chromosomal abnormality to increase the successful rate of IVF. Method: Ten couples, four with high risk of chromosomal abnormality and six infertile couples, underwent FISH-based PGD during IVF procedure. At day 3, one or two blastomeres were aspirated from each embryo. Biopsied blastomeres were examined using FISH analysis to screen out embryos with chromosomal abnormalities. At day 4, embryos without detectable chromosomal abnormality were transferred to the mother bodies as in regular IVF. Results: Among 54 embryos screened using FISH-based PGD, 30 embryos were detected to have chromosomal abnormalities. The 24 healthy embryos were implanted, resulting in four clinical pregnancies, two of which led to successful normal birth of two healthy babies; one to ongoing pregnancy during the writing of this article; and one to ectopic pregnancy. Conclusion: FISH-based PGD is an effective method for detecting embryonic chromosomal abnormality, which is one of the common causes of spontaneous miscarriages and chromosomally unbalanced offsprings.     

认知功能障碍的遗传学基础

目的:通过了解具有认知表型病例的遗传学基础,揭示认知的生物学基础.方法:对非特异性精神发育迟滞等具有精神发育迟滞表型的病症的分子基础以及学习与记忆的动物模型的研究成果进行阐述.结果:染色体畸形和基因突变会导致精神发育迟滞.学习与记忆行为与基因的表达及蛋白质的合成相关.结论:精神发育迟滞等病症的分子基础和学习与记忆的动物模型研究的认识,促使我们理解认知的生物学基础.     

Somatic deletion and duplication of genes on chromosome 11 in Wilms' tumours

One of the most provocative findings in tumour biology is the relationship between chromosomal changes and embryonal cancers in children. For example, children with the rare paediatric syndrome AGR triad (aniridia, genito-urinary abnormalities and mental retardation) often develop Wilms' tumours at a very early age and carry a germ-line deletion on the short arm of chromosome 11 (11p13). It has been suggested that the germ-line deletion 11p is the first of two or more steps to cancer in AGR children. If this were true, one might expect a similar deletion to arise somatically in the far more common isolated Wilms' tumours of children without AGR, as suggested by Knudson from epidemiological data. However, a chromosomal deletion on 11p was observed in only two of five such cases, while it was absent or seen inconsistently in others. We have now used a molecular genetic approach to determine whether Wilms' tumour cells possess somatic alterations at 11p loci. We have found somatic deletions of specific genes in four of six Wilms' tumours. Surprisingly, in all four cases, the deletions were associated with duplications leading to homozygosity of the non-deleted alleles in the tumour cells. As analogous observations were recently reported in retinoblastoma, the genetic events reported here may underlie the development of many such embryonal tumours in children.     

88例疑有染色体异常者细胞遗传学分析

本文对８８例疑有染色体异常者进行了检查，发现染色体异常者７例，检出率为７．９５％。其中染色体数目异常者５例，染色体结构异常者２例。此外，尚有女性假半阴阳者和染色体变异者各１例。笔者对各种异常核型进行了分析。     

染色体技术在遗传性疾病临床诊断中的应用

探讨了染色体技术对临床诊断某些疾病的应用价值 .应用常规外周血淋巴细胞染色体标本制备 ,G显带、C显带技术 ,脆性X染色体分析 .结果从 3 89例患者中检出异常核型 46例 ,检出率为 11.83 % .其中罗伯逊易位携带者 6例 ,平衡易位携带者10例 ,倒位携带者 4例 ,性染色体异常者 14例 ,先天愚型及发育异常者 12例 .结果表明 ,染色体技术是某些遗传性疾病临床诊断必不可少的手段 ,异常染色体的检出对患者的治疗、预后及优生、优育、优教都有重要指导意义 .     

Parental origin of chromosomes involved in the translocation t(9;22).

Functionally equivalent genetic maternal can be labelled by an epigenetic marking process and used differentially depending on whether its origin is maternal or paternal. This phenomenon is known as genomic imprinting and is manifested at either the chromosomal or gene level. Genomic imprinting seems to play an important role in cancer predisposition syndromes, and phenotypic consequences are evident in constitutional deletion syndromes and uniparental disomies. Moreover, there seems to be a preferential retention of paternal alleles in sporadic tumours such as Wilms' tumour, rhabdomyosarcoma, osteosarcoma and retinoblastoma. To investigate whether chromosomes involved in acquired abnormalities of haematologic neoplasms show a similar 'parent of origin' bias, we studied the inheritance of the translocated chromosomes 9 and 22 in cases of Philadelphia-chromosome-positive leukaemia, using unique specific chromosome band polymorphisms. Here we show that the translocated chromosome 9 was of paternal origin, whereas the translocated chromosomes 22 were derived exclusively from the maternal copy, in 11 cases with reliable polymorphisms. Our data therefore provide evidence that imprinting phenomena may play an important role in acquired tumour-specific chromosome rearrangements.     

Identification of reciprocal translocation sites within the c-myc oncogene and immunoglobulin mu locus in a Burkitt lymphoma

The association between certain human tumours and characteristic chromosomal abnormalities has led to the hypothesis that specific cellular oncogenes may be involved and consequently 'activated' in these genetic recombinations. This hypothesis has found strong support in the recent findings that some cellular homologues of retroviral onc genes are located in chromosomal segments which are affected by specific tumour-related abnormalities (see ref. 4 for review). In the case of human undifferentiated B-cell lymphoma (UBL) and mouse plasmacytomas, cytogenetic and chromosomal mapping data have identified characteristic chromosomal recombinations directly involving different immunoglobulin genes and the c-myc oncogene (for review see refs 5, 6). In UBLs carrying the t(8:14) translocation it has been shown that the human c-myc gene is located on the region of chromosome 8 (8q24) which is translocated to the immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus (IHC) on chromosome 14. Although it is known that the chromosomal breakpoints can be variably located within or outside the c-myc locus and within the IHC mu (refs 9, 11) or IHC gamma locus, the recombination sites have not been exactly identified and mapped in relation to the functional domains of these loci. We report here the identification and characterization of two reciprocal recombination sites between c-myc and IHC mu in a Burkitt lymphoma. Nucleotide sequencing of the cross-over point joining chromosomes 8 and 14 on chromosome 14q--shows that the onc gene is interrupted within its first intron and joined to the heavy-chain mu switch region. This recombination predicts that the translocated onc gene would code for a rearranged mRNA but a normal c-myc polypeptide.     

A point mutation at codon 13 of the N-ras oncogene in myelodysplastic syndrome

Patients with a myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) which has a risk of leukaemic change exhibit a variable clinical course. It has been suggested that the development of leukaemia in patients with MDS may be related to chromosomal abnormalities or genetic alterations: somatic mutation of the N-ras gene is now considered to be a critical step in the genetic basis of human leukaemogenesis. Here we report that DNAs of bone-marrow cells from three out of eight patients with MDS contained an activated N-ras oncogene, as detected by an in vivo selection assay in nude mice with transfected NIH 3T3 cells. Molecular analysis revealed the same single nucleotide substitution at codon 13 in all three transforming N-ras genes. Each of the three patients showed a progression of the disease and a resulting leukaemic change within the following year. Our observation of the mutation at codon 13 in leukaemic cell DNAs from all three cases suggests that activation of the N-ras gene is important in the development of leukaemia in some MDS cases.     

c-Ha-ras1 is not deleted in aniridia-Wilms' tumour association

Non-random tumour-specific chromosomal abnormalities have been observed in cells of many different human tumours. In Wilms' tumour (WT) and retinoblastoma, a chromosomal deletion occurs germinally or somatically and has been considered an important step in tumour development. One class of potential cellular transforming genes comprises the cellular homologues of the transforming genes of highly oncogenic retroviruses. A remarkable concordance between the chromosomal location of human cellular oncogenes and the breakpoints involved in acquired chromosomal translocations is becoming apparent in various cancers: the oncogenes c-mos, c-myc and c-abl are located at the breakpoints that occur in acute myeloblastic leukaemia, Burkitt's lymphoma and chronic myelocytic leukaemia respectively. Thus when the oncogene c-Ha-ras1 was localized to the short arm of human chromosome 11 (refs 6-8; region 11p11 leads to p15 and not 11p13 as stated in ref. 5), it was proposed as a possible aetiological agent in the aniridia-WT association (AWTA) that results from a deletion of 11p13 (although a transforming gene recently isolated from a WT cell line (G401) was shown not to be homologous to either c-Ha-ras or c-Ki-ras9). We have now looked for deletion or rearrangement of c-Ha-ras1 in the DNA from four subjects with del(11p13)-associated predisposition to Wilms' tumour, aniridia, genitourinary abnormalities and mental retardation. We report here that in no case is c-Ha-ras1 deleted, and we have further refined its location to 11p15.1 leads to 11p15.5. On the basis of enzyme studies and direct gene dosage determination for c-Ha-ras1 and beta-globin in neoplastic and non-neoplastic tissues from one patient, we conclude that deletion of the normal counterpart of 11p cannot account for the development of the tumour.     

用荧光原位杂交技术检测性染色体异常

用性染色体探针分别对９例性染色体异常患者和１名性别不明患儿进行了荧光原位杂交，结果表明，２个病列的杂交结果与原诊断核型不符，性别不明患儿的核型为４６，ＸＹ，结合中期及间期杂交结果，ＦＩＳＨ的应用价值进行了评估。