title: Impact of pericentric inversion of Chromosome 9 [inv (9) (p11q12)] on infertility.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  One of the frequent occurrences in chromosome rearrangements is pericentric inversion of the Chromosome 9; inv (9) (p11q12), which is consider to be the variant of normal karyotype. Although it seems not to correlate with abnormal phenotypes, there have been many controversial reports indicating that it may lead to abnormal clinical conditions such as infertility. The incidence is found to be about 1.98% in the general population.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated the karyotypes of 300 infertile couples (600 individuals) being referred to our infertility clinic using standard GTG banding for karyotype preparation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The chromosomal analysis revealed a total of 15 (2.5%) inversions, among these, 14 male patients were inversion 9 carriers (4.69%) while one female patient was affected (0.33%). The incidence of inversion 9 in male patients is significantly higher than that of normal population and even than that of female patients (P< 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This result suggests that inversion 9 may often cause infertility in men due to spermatogenic disturbances, which are arisen by the loops or acentric fragments formed in meiosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, School of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mozdarani
authors.forename: Anahita Mohseni
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Meybodi
authors.forename: Hamideh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Karimi