Sex chromosome aneuploidies in sperm of 47,XYY men.

The sex chromosomal equipment in 26,675 sperm of 47,XYY males was analyzed. A total of 5.78% of the nuclei exhibited sex chromosome hyperhaploidy. Six studies have analyzed the sperm of 10 XYY patients and, although these studies indicated some degree of elimination of the extra Y chromosome during spermatogenesis, a certain percentage of XYY germinal cells may also be able to achieve meiosis and produce sperm with gonosomal disomies. All these studies show an increased incidence of gonosomal aneuploidies in sperm, but there are significant discrepancies concerning the extent of these abnormalities. The global frequencies of sperm with an abnormal number of sex chromosomes ranged from 0.578 to 13.91%, depending on the patients. There are several explanations for these discrepancies: differences attributed to fluorescence in situ hybridization methodology, the use of dual or multicolor FISH, recruitment, interindividual variations, and intraindividual variations. This study reports an additional series obtained from another XYY individual and compares and discusses the data on gonosomal hyperhaploidies in sperm of 47 XYY males using in situ hybridization analyses.