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Sex distribution in arrested precompacted human embryos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Santiago Munné ,
Ya Xu Tang ,
Heinz-Ulrich G. Weier ,
Jonathan Stein ,
Michelle Finkelstein ,
Jamie Grifo  and
Jacques Cohen
Santiago Munné*
Affiliation:
Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility, New York Hospital-Cornell University Center, New York, Division of Molecular Cytometry, University of California, San Francisco, and Department of Life Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.
Ya Xu Tang
Affiliation:
Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility, New York Hospital-Cornell University Center, New York, Division of Molecular Cytometry, University of California, San Francisco, and Department of Life Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.
Heinz-Ulrich G. Weier
Affiliation:
Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility, New York Hospital-Cornell University Center, New York, Division of Molecular Cytometry, University of California, San Francisco, and Department of Life Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.
Jonathan Stein
Affiliation:
Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility, New York Hospital-Cornell University Center, New York, Division of Molecular Cytometry, University of California, San Francisco, and Department of Life Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.
Michelle Finkelstein
Affiliation:
Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility, New York Hospital-Cornell University Center, New York, Division of Molecular Cytometry, University of California, San Francisco, and Department of Life Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.
Jamie Grifo
Affiliation:
Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility, New York Hospital-Cornell University Center, New York, Division of Molecular Cytometry, University of California, San Francisco, and Department of Life Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.
Jacques Cohen
Affiliation:
Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility, New York Hospital-Cornell University Center, New York, Division of Molecular Cytometry, University of California, San Francisco, and Department of Life Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.
*
S. Munné, Gamete and Embryo Research Laboratory, Cornell University Medical College, PO Box 30, 1300 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021, USA.
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Extract

Evidence of sexual dimorphism before fetal gonadal differentiation in mammals has been accumulating, suggesting that male embryos develop faster than female ones. The current investigation was performed to evaluate whether the development rate of precompacted human embryos is controlled by sex chromosomes. Sex was determined by polymerase chain reaction and fluorescence in situ hybridisation in 172 arrested embryos derived from in vitro fertilisation. The sex ratio (1.02:0.98) did not differ significantly from 1:1. Although more males appeared to have greater fragmentation, the difference between the sex ratios of highly fragmented and normal embryos (1.08:0.92) was not significant. Arrested female embryos had a tendency to exhibit more than five nuclei and less than 10% fragmentation, but the trend was not statistically significant. The current results suggest that the first developmental block in human embryos occurs prior to and shortly after genomic activation and is not determined by the presence of the Y chromosome.

Keywords

In situ hybridisationMosaicPolymerase chain reactionsX chromosomeY chromosome
Type
Article
Information
Zygote , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , May 1993 , pp. 155 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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