The incidence of uniparental disomy associated with intrauterine growth retardation in a cohort of thirty-five severely affected babies.

OBJECTIVE

Our purpose was to screen for uniparental disomy 35 babies with idiopathic intrauterine growth retardation < 5th percentile.

STUDY

DESIGN

The placenta and the baby's blood were conventionally karyotyped. Deoxyribonucleic acid from the parents, the baby's blood, and the placenta were then screened for uniparental disomy for 12 candidate chromosomes with use of chromosome-specific polymorphic deoxyribonucleic acid markers.

RESULTS

Two cases of maternal uniparental disomy for chromosome 16 were found associated with confined placental mosaicism for chromosome 16. No other uniparental disomy was found for any of the 12 chromosomes tested. Four structural chromosome abnormalities were also found in this cohort through standard karyotyping.

CONCLUSION

Uniparental disomy for the chromosomes tested does not explain the etiology of the majority of cases of intrauterine growth retardation < 5th percentile. Maternal uniparental disomy for chromosome 16 accounts for 5% of this cohort. Structural chromosomal abnormalities are also much higher than expected at 11%.