Incontinentia pigmenti and X-autosome translocations. Non-isotopic in situ hybridization with an X-centromere-specific probe (pSV2X5) reveals a possible X-centromeric breakpoint in one of five published cases.

Incontinentia pigmenti (IP) is a rare X-linked disease with marked female-to-female transmission and a dominant pattern of inheritance. Reports of six unrelated females with IP and X-autosomal translocations, all with the X breakpoint at Xp11, and an additional report of a female with IP and a 45,X/46,X,r(X) karyotype suggests that this may be the locus for the IP gene. When four of these cases, including the r(X), were re-examined with a non-isotopic in situ hybridization technique and an X centromere-specific probe (pSV2X5), the Xp11 breakpoint was confirmed. However, results from a fifth reported case, t(X;17), showed that the X breakpoint was within the centromeric alphoid repetitive sequences recognized by the probe pSV2X5. As the clinical presentation of this patient was consistent with the IP phenotype and diagnosis, the centromeric position of the X-chromosome breakpoint raises several questions with respect to the homogeneity of the Xp11 locus for IP.