Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine if donor age is associated with an increased incidence of diploidy and of disomy for the sex chromosomes and for chromosomes 6 and 21. We used simultaneous fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) for chromosomes 6, 21, X and Y in sperm from 18 healthy donors, aged 24–74 years (mean 48.8 years). A total of 194 024 sperm were analysed, with a minimum of 10 000 sperm scored for each donor. Our results indicate a significant increase of the level of diploidy (P=0.002), and a marginal significance of total sex chromosome disomy (P=0.055) with age. No increase was observed for disomies XX, YY, XY, 21 or 6. The percentages of increase for disomy and for diploidy ranged from 0.3 to 17% for each 10-year period. Chromosomes 6 and 21 did not segregate preferentially with the X or Y chromosomes. Our findings show a linear trend association between age and diploidy in human males.
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Acknowledgements
This work received financial support from Ministerio de Educación y Cultura (DGESEIC, project PB98-0893) and Generalitat de Catalunya (CIRIT, 1999 SGR-00104), Spain. Mercè Bosch was the recipient of a grant from Ministerio de Educación y Cultura (FPI, AP96).
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Bosch, M., Rajmil, O., Martínez-Pasarell, O. et al. Linear increase of diploidy in human sperm with age: A four-colour FISH study. Eur J Hum Genet 9, 533–538 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejhg.5200659
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejhg.5200659
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