[Electron microscopic analysis of synaptonemal complexes of male laboratory mice exposed during the period of embryogenesis in the vicinity of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station].

Four male mice were shown to have decreased fertility among 74 laboratory male mice exposed in the Chernobyl APP area during embryogenesis. Electron microscopic analysis of synaptonemal complexes (SC) of at zygotene-diplotene and light-optic analysis of chromosome aberrations at diakinesis-metaphase 1 demonstrated the presence of interchromosome translocations in autosomal chromosomes, and also intrachromosome translocations in two of four animals. The frequency of chromosome translocations in SC preparations was on the average 1.8 times higher than their frequency at the diakinesis-metaphase 1 stage. High percentage of cells in which associations of sex bivalent axes (XY) with the axes of autosomal bivalents were observed in the SC preparations and reduced fertility in the animals studied confirmed the Forejt's hypothesis that such associations caused the arrest of cells at pachytene and, as a consequence, disturbed the process of embryogenesis.