The use of foetal ovarian stromal cell culture for cytogenetic diagnosis. Stromal ovarian culture cytogenetic diagnosis

Pairing and synapsis in oocytes from female fetuses with euploid and aneuploid chromosome complements

Only little is known about the meiotic prophase events in human oocytes, although some of them are involved in the origin of aneuploidies. Here, a broad study of the pairing and synaptic processes in 3263 human euploid and 2613 aneuploid oocytes (47,XX, +21 and 47,XX, +13), using different techniques and methods, is presented in order to elucidate the characteristics of this essential meiotic process. Our results reaffirm the existence of a common high efficiency in the pairing process leading to the obtainment of a bivalent for all chromosomes studied in euploid and aneuploid cases. Nevertheless, this high efficiency was insufficient to consistently produce trivalents in aneuploid oocytes. Trivalent 21 was only observed in 48.8% of the 47,XX, +21 pachytene-stage oocytes studied, and trivalent 13 was found in 68.7% of the 47,XX, +13 pachytene-stage oocytes analyzed. Our data confirm the hypothesis which suggests that in human oocytes the presence of an extra chromosome could interfere in bouquet dynamics. In addition, the pairing process of the X chromosome is altered in trisomic 21 oocytes, providing evidence of the influence that an extra chromosome 21 may cause meiotic progression.

Evolution of the meiotic prophase and of the chromosome pairing process during human fetal ovarian development

BACKGROUND

Studies on human oocytes in prophase I are limited due to the difficulty in obtaining the sample. However, a complete study of meiotic prophase evolution and the homologue pairing process is necessary to try to understand the implication of oogenesis in the origin of human aneuploidy.

METHODS

A complete analysis of meiotic prophase progression comprising the long developmental time period during which meiotic prophase takes place, based on the analysis of a total of 8603 oocytes in prophase I from 15 different cases is presented. The pairing process of chromosomes 13 and 18 is also described.

RESULTS

The findings significantly relate for the first time the evolution of meiotic prophase to fetal development. Although for both chromosomes 13 and 18 a high pairing efficiency is found, pairing failure at the pachytene stage has been observed in 0.1% of oocytes. However, errors at the diplotene stage are substantially increased, suggesting that complete, premature disjunction of the homologues commonly occurs. Moreover, pre-meiotic errors are also described.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings show that homologous chromosomes pair very efficiently, but the high frequency of complete, premature homologue separation found at diplotene suggests that mechanisms other than the pairing process could be more likely to lead to the high aneuploidy rate observed in human oocytes.

Chromosome 18 pairing behavior in human trisomic oocytes. Presence of an extra chromosome extends bouquet stage

Little is known about the first meiotic prophase stages in the human female because these occur during fetal life, and only a few studies have addressed aneuploid human oocytes. In this paper, the synaptic process in the meiotic prophase in three 47, XX + 18 cases is analyzed. A complete study of the dynamics of centromeres and telomeres, cohesin core and synapsis development in aneuploid female meiosis was performed. Investigation of chromosome dynamics in prophase of trisomy 18 oocytes show that these events follow the major patterns seen earlier in euploid oocytes. However, there is a significant delay in the resolution of bouquet topology which could relate to the presence of a surplus chromosome 18 axial element in zygotene oocytes. Pachytene oocytes displayed normal synapsis among the three chromosome 18s. However, in some oocytes the surplus chromosome 18 core was aligned to the bivalent 18. As ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3 related kinase (ATR) has been described as a marker for late-pairing chromosomes in mice, ATR distribution was analyzed in human meiocytes –spermatocytes, euploid oocytes and trisomic oocytes. In contrast to the observations made in mice, no preferential staining for late-pairing chromosomes was observed in humans. In the cases studied, bivalent synapses progressed as in a normal ovary, contrasting with the hypothesis that a surplus chromosome can modify pairing of other chromosomes.

Female-specific features of recombinational double-stranded DNA repair in relation to synapsis and telomere dynamics in human oocytes

Chromosome segregation errors are a significant cause of aneuploidy among human neonates and often result from errors in female meiosis that occur during fetal life. For the latter reason, little is known about chromosome dynamics during female prophase I. Here, we analyzed chromosome reorganization, and centromere and telomere dynamics in meiosis in the human female by immunofluorescent staining of the SYCP3 and SYCP1 synaptonemal complex proteins and the course of recombinational DNA repair by IF of phospho-histone H2A.X (gamma-H2AX), RPA and MLH1 recombination proteins. We found that SYCP3, but not SYCP1, aggregates appear in the preleptotene nucleus and some persist up to pachytene. Telomere clustering (bouquet stage) in oocytes lasted from late-leptotene to early pachytene-significantly longer than in the male. Leptotene and zygotene oocytes and spermatocytes showed strong gamma-H2AX labeling, while gamma-H2AX patches, which colocalized with RPA, were present on SYCP1-tagged pachytene SCs. This was rarely seen in the male and may suggest that synapsis installs faster with respect to progression of recombinational double-strand break repair or that the latter is slower in the female. It is speculated that the presence of gamma-H2AX into pachytene highlights female-specific peculiarities of recombination, chromosome behavior and checkpoint control that may contribute to female susceptibility for aneuploidy.