INCREASED ANEUPLOID FREQUENCY IN SPERMATOZOA FROM A HODGKINS-DISEASE PATIENT AFTER CHEMOTHERAPY AND RADIOTHERAPY

The frequency of sperm aneuploidy was investigated by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in a Hodgkin's disease patient shortly after he had received chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Sperm karyotyping of t he same patient had previously shown multiple structural abnormalities in most spermatozoa immediately after radiotherapy (day 0), whereas m ost spermatozoa collected 5 wk later (day 38) exhibited normal metapha se divisions (Rousseaux et al., 1993). Variations in the frequency of aneuploidy could not be detected by sperm karyotyping. Multicolor FISH on interphase spermatozoa revealed an increase in the rate of disomy for chromosomes 1, 6, 11, X, and Y at day 0 as well as at day 38. The high frequency of 24,XY (nondisjunction at meiosis I) and 24,XX (nondi sjunction at meiosis II) spermatozoa (8.46% and 1.64% at day 0, respec tively) from the Hodgkin's disease patient suggests that both meiosis I and II are affected and that the X chromosome is frequently involved in such malsegregation events. The rate of 46,XY diploidy was also in creased in the patient's sperm, up to 0.62% at day 0. While radiothera py probably affected the postmeiotic cells (spermatids), the patient's cancer and/or chemotherapy are the two major factors that could have affected the dividing spermatogonia and/or spermatocytes, resulting in high aneuploidy rates.