title: Identification of meiotic anomalies with multiplex fluorescence in situ hybridization: Preliminary results.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize meiotic anomalies in infertile men by multiplex fluorescence in situ hybridization (M-FISH) and to determine whether synaptic problems affect specific bivalents or whether anomalies are random.
  
  
  METHODS
  Analysis of meiotic preparations with standard techniques and M-FISH.
  
  
  METHODS
  Assisted reproduction centers and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three fertile men undergoing vasectomy, four sterile patients with oligoasthenoteratozoospermia, and one patient with a Robertsonian translocation t(13;14).
  
  
  METHODS
  Unilateral testicular biopsy in controls and patients with oligoasthenoteratozoospermia and collection of a semen sample from the translocation carrier.
  
  
  METHODS
  Identification of bivalents in metaphase I and chromosomes in metaphase II and characterization of chromosome abnormalities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All bivalents in metaphase I and all chromosomes in metaphase II could be identified. In controls and in one patient with oligoasthenoteratozoospermia, meiosis was normal. Other patients with oligoasthenoteratozoospermia showed different types of anomaly: desynapsis, breaks, precocious XY separation, or cryptic reorganizations. The Robertsonian translocation t(13;14) was easily identified.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results confirm the high incidence of synaptic errors in oligoasthenoteratozoospermia patients. Bivalents in metaphase I and chromosomes in metaphase II were individually identifiable. Nondisjunctional errors or small reorganizations overlooked in classic meiotic preparations were identified. Synaptic anomalies seem to affect meiotic bivalents at random.
authors.affiliation: Unitat de Biologia Cel.lular, Edifici Ciències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra 08193, Spain.
authors.forename: Zaida
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sarrate
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blanco
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Egozcue
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vidal
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Egozcue
mesh_terms: D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D008540:Meiosis / Q000235:genetics*; D008677:Metaphase; D009845:Oligospermia / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D014659:Vasectomy