SOMATIC STABILITY IN CHORIONIC VILLI SAMPLES AND OTHER HUNTINGTON FETAL TISSUES

We have studied different tissues from two affected fetuses with Hunti ngton's disease (HD). In the first case the analysis was performed at 11 weeks of pregnancy; CAG repeats from seven different tissues were c ompared with the results obtained in the chorionic villi sample (CVS). We found 42 CAG repeats in all samples. In the second case the study was done at 12 weeks; eight tissues (including brain) were studied and compared with the CVS; in all of them, 44 CAG repeats were obtained. Our results show a somatic stability in the different analyzed tissues and suggest that mitotic instability can be a secondary consequence o f neuronal degeneration and gliosis. Likewise, our data show great via bility in the prenatal diagnosis (PD) of Huntington's disease using sa mples from any tissue.