DETECTION OF CHROMOSOMAL ABERRATION IN FETUSES ARISING FROM RECURRENTSPONTANEOUS-ABORTION BY COMPARATIVE GENOMIC HYBRIDIZATION

Chromosomal abnormalities (mostly aneuploidy) account for similar to 5 0% of fetal losses in the first 8-15 weeks of gestation, Cytogenetic a nalysis of aborted fetal material depends on conventional tissue cultu ring and karyotyping, This technique is laborious and is subject to pr oblems including external contamination, culture failure and selective growth of maternal cells, Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) was used to determine the chromosomal constitution of 27 fetuses arising from recurrent spontaneous abortion. In 12 samples, the CGH results we re compared to the results obtained by conventional cytogenetic techni ques. Correlation was found in 75% of samples. Overall, CGH detected c hromosomal abnormalities in 48% of the samples, including trisomies, m onosomies, and partial chromosome gains and losses. The preliminary da ta in this study show that CGH can be added, at least as a complementa ry method, to the traditional cytogenetic techniques used in the inves tigation of recurrent spontaneous abortions.