Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) allows the detection of geneti
c defects before implantation, thus circumventing the possible need fo
r abortion. France's current legislation allows the practice of PGD un
der certain circumstances which include the prerequisite agreement of
the French health authority. Unfortunately to enact the pending 'bioet
hical law', voted in July 1994, a decree still needs to be published.
So, for the moment, although we know that PGD should be authorized, it
s practice is currently impossible in France. In order to prepare for
licensing, me are setting up the relevant technologies, by performing
biopsy on mouse embryos and fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) e
xperiments on human lymphoblast cells, We briefly describe the French
legal situation with regard to PGD and the work we have performed in t
his context to obtain the licensing to offer PGD to patients. After a
period of preparation, 95.9% of biopsies were successful and up to 95.
4% of the biopsied blastomeres were properly spread onto slides. Biops
ied and control mouse embryos were reimplanted into pseudopregnant fem
ales and similar birth rates were obtained (33.4 and 30.9% respectivel
y). In these experiments we noticed a birth delay of 12-24 h for the b
iopsied embryos compared with the controls. Furthermore scanning elect
ron microscopy of the biopsied embryos allowed assessment of the hole
made by the Tyrode's acid. By intercrossing adults derived from biopsi
ed embryos for two successive generations, it was shown that the biops
y did not generate defects affecting their reproductive ability. FISH
experiments were performed using specific probes for chromosomes X, Y
and 1 on nuclei spread by a conventional protocol or a Tween/HCl blast
omere spreading protocol; in the latter case, slides with 1-5 cells we
re prepared, A similar percentage of correct X,Y,1,1 signal was obtain
ed from all three types of spreading, varying from 85.5 to 89.9%.