Post-zygotic errors leading to mosaicism may occur, and persist throughout preimplantation development in vitro. Our results suggest that mosaicism involving multiple chromosomal imbalances and/or imbalances affecting a high proportion of cells in an embryo appear to impair development to the blastocyst stage.

Pallister‐Killian syndrome (PKS) is a rare disorder characterized by a specific combination of anomalies, mental retardation and mosaic presence of a supernumerary isochromosome 12p which is tissue‐limited. We report an atypical case of PKS with a mild phenotype. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to demonstrate that the supernumerary marker chromosome identified in the patient's fibroblasts was an isochromosome 12p. This study broadens the spectrum of PKS phenotype. It also illustrates the usefulness of fluorescence in situ hybridization in diagnosis of patients with chromosomal abnormalities and mild or atypical clinical findings. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

It has been suggested recently that 47,XXY germ cells are able to progress through meiosis to produce hyperhaploid spermatozoa. We report on a 46,XY/47,XXY Klinefelter patient whose spermatozoa were recovered from the ejaculate and used for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) analysis of the patient's spermatozoa and of spare preimplantation embryos with DNA probes specific for chromosomes X, Y and 18 revealed sex chromosome hyperploidy in 3.9% of the sperm nuclei analysed (2.23% XY18, 1.12% XX18, 0.56% YY18), while only three out of 10 spare embryos analysed were normal for chromosomes tested. The abnormalities included two diploid mosaic embryos with the majority of the blastomeres normal for the chromosomes tested, and five embryos with mostly abnormal blastomeres and chaotic chromosome X, Y and 18 patterns. None of the embryos analysed showed a XXY1818 or XXX1818 chromosome complement. The frequency of sex chromosome hyperploidy in the spermatozoa of the mosaic Klinefelter patient was higher than the mean reported for karyotypically normal males, supporting the hypothesis that 47,XXY germ cells are able to complete meiosis and produce aneuploid spermatozoa. However, most of the spermatozoa analysed were normal for sex chromosomes, and ICSI of the patient's spermatozoa did not result in a spare embryo with a uniform 47,XXY or 47,XXX chromosome complement. Instead, fertilization produced a high percentage of mosaic embryos with chaotic chromosome arrangements.