Purpose To study meiotic segregation patterns of Robertsonian translocations in sperm of male carriers and to assess the frequencies of unbalanced sperm formation. Methods FISH with combination of probes to detect all the variants of meiotic segregation was performed on decondensed sperm nuclei of 5 carriers of der(13;14), 3 carriers of der(14;21) and one carrier of a rare der(13;21) translocation. Results The frequency of sperm with alternate segregation and normal/balanced chromosomal complement ranged from 68 % to 94.4 % (mean 79.2±8.4). Adjacent segregation was detected in 17.9±7.3 % of sperm (from 5.6 % to 29 %). No significant differences in frequencies of gametes with nullisomies and disomies of chromosomes involved in translocations were observed. The mean frequency of 3:0 segregation products was 2.5±1.4 %. Conclusions All analyzed patients showed homogenous segregation pattern with clear predominance of alternate segregation resulting in normal/balanced sperm production. Still, from 5.8-32 % (mean 20.4±8.3 %) of sperm was unbalanced, which is the evidence of the increased risk of unbalanced offspring in carriers of Robertsonian translocations. Our results highlight the importance of genetic counseling of Robertsonian translocation carriers prior to ICSI or IVF.

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Chromosomal abnormalities are among the most common genetic causes of spermatogenic disruptions. Carriers of chromosomal abnormalities are at increased risk of infertility, miscarriage or birth of a child with unbalanced karyotype due to the production of unbalanced gametes. The natural selection against chromosomally abnormal sperm usually prevents fertilization with sperm barring in cases of serious chromosomal abnormalities. However, assisted reproductive technologies in general and intracytoplasmic sperm injection in particular, enable the transmission of chromosomal abnormalities to the progeny. Therefore, cytogenetic studies are important in patients with male factor infertility before assisted reproduction treatment. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the types and frequencies of chromosomal abnormalities in 724 patients with infertility and to estimate the risk of chromosomal abnormalities detection in subgroups of patients depending on the severity of spermatogenic disruption, aiming at identifying groups of patients in need of cytogenetic studies. Karyotype analysis was performed in 724 blood samples of men attending infertility clinic. Chromosomal preparation was performed by standard techniques. At least 20 GTG-banded metaphase plates with the resolution from 450 to 750 bands per haploid set were analysed in each case. When chromosomal mosaicism was suspected, this number was increased to 50. Abnormal karyotypes were observed in 48 (6.6%) patients, including 67% of autosomal abnormalities and 33% of gonosomal abnormalities. Autosomal abnormalities were represented by structural rearrangements. Reciprocal translocations were the most common type of structural chromosomal abnormalities in the studied group, detected with the frequency of 2.6% (n = 19), followed by Robertsonian translocation, observed with the frequency of 1.2% (n = 9). The frequency of inversions was 0.6% (n = 4). Gonosomal abnormalities included 14 cases of sex chromosome aneuploidy and 2 cases of terminal deletion of Y chromosome. Klinefelter syndrome was detected in 67% of patients with azoospermia. A significant increase in the frequency of numerical chromosomal abnormalities was observed in a group of patients with azoospermia (P < 0.001). No differences were detected in the frequency of structural abnormalities in subgroups of patients. An increase in the frequency of chromosomal abnormalities with the decrease of sperm count was observed. Chromosomal abnormalities were detected with frequency 1.1% in a group of patients with normospermia, 1.9% in a group of patients with asthenozoospermia, 4.3% in patients with asthenoteratozoospermia, 6.5% in patients with oligoasthenozoospermia, 11.6% in patients with oligoasthenoteratozoospermia and 35% in a group of patients with azoospermia. Significant increase of the prevalence of chromosomal abnormalities was detected in subgroups of patients with azoospermia (P < 0.001) and oligozoospermia (P = 0.001) as compared to patients with normozoospermia. These results are considered to be criteria for selection of patients in need of cytogenetic studies before in vitro fertilization cycles because of the highest risk of chromosomal abnormalities detection.

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In order to reveal the influence of genetic component on the early embryo development, the retrospective study of morphokinetic characteristics of 717 embryos subjected to preimplantation genetic testing was conducted. Blastomere biopsy for FISH-based preimplantation genetic screening of 7 chromosomes was performed on the third day of culture, while embryo developmental potential and morphological features at the cleavage and blastulation stage were studied regarding maternal age particularly in the group of younger women and patients older than 36. Results of genetic testing revealed that euploid embryos rate gradually decreased with maternal age comprising 39.9% in young women group and 25.3% of specimen belonging to elder patients. At the cleavage stage, morphological characteristics of aneuploid and euploid embryos didn’t differ significantly regardless of the age of patients that could be accounted for the transcriptional silence of embryo genome till the third day of its development. However, in case of prolonged culture chromosomally balanced embryos rarely faced developmental arrest (in 7.9%) and formed blastocysts half more frequently compared to aberrant embryos (respectively 75.6 versus 49.8%). Nevertheless, no substantial difference was found between blastocyst formation rate among embryos with similar genetic component regardless of the maternal age. Taking into consideration high rate of chromosomally unbalanced embryos specific to patients of advanced maternal age, the relative proportion of aneuplouid blastocysts was significantly higher in this group of embryos. Thus, without genetic screening there is a possibility of inaccurate selection of embryos for women of advanced reproductive age for transfer procedure even in case of prolonged culture. Consequently, increase of aneuploid embryos frequency associated with permanent preimplantation natural selection effectiveness along with the postimplantation natural selection failure may be the cause of elevated risk of chromosomally abnormal child birth for advanced age women after natural conception, as well as after assisted reproduction therapy.