Increased aneuploidy rates in spermatozoa of a male carrier of a trisomy 18 mosaicism

Semen analysis of a 31-year-old infertile man showed a severe oligoteratozoospermia. Karyotyping of peripheral blood lymphocytes showed a 47,XY,+18[13]/46,XY[16] mosaicism. Cultured skin fibroblasts, right and left jugal smears showed 3, 50 and 65% trisomic cells respectively. The aim of the study was to evaluate the aneuploidy rates of chromosomes X, Y, 13, 18 and 21 and the diploidy rate in his spermatozoa by fluorescence in situ hybridization. The rate of disomy 18 was significantly increased in the spermatozoa of the patient (0.68%) compared to the control group (0.06%). A statistically significant difference in the rates of disomy for chromosome 13 (0.46% vs. 0.14%) and the gonosomes (0.78% vs. 0.24%) and diploidy (0.93% vs. 0.34%) was also found between the patient and the control group. However, no significant difference was observed for chromosome 21 (0.34% vs. 0.15%). Our results show evidence of a generalized perturbation of the meiotic mechanism that could lead to an increased risk for a mosaic trisomy 18 infertile male of producing offspring with aneuploidy that is not only on account of the father's mosaicism, but also more particularly because of severe oligoteratozoospermia.