[The use of FISH on buccal smear to investigate mosaicism with a 45,X cell line: study on healthy men and patients with disorders of sex development].

OBJECTIVE

To verify whether fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) of cells from the buccal epithelium could be employed to detect cryptomosaicism with a 45,X lineage in 46,XY patients.

SUBJECTS AND

METHODS

Samples of nineteen 46,XY healthy young men and five patients with disorders of sex development (DSD), four 45,X/46,XY and one 46,XY were used. FISH analysis with X and Y specific probes on interphase nuclei from blood lymphocytes and buccal epithelium were analyzed to investigate the proportion of nuclei containing only the signal of the X chromosome.

RESULTS

The frequency of nuclei containing only the X signal in the two tissues of healthy men did not differ (p = 0.69). In all patients with DSD this frequency was significantly higher, and there was no difference between the two tissues (p = 0.38), either.

CONCLUSIONS

Investigation of mosaicism with a 45,X cell line in patients with 46,XY DSD or sterility can be done by FISH directly using cells from the buccal epithelium.