Sperm chromosomes and habitual abortion.

Genetic factors, especially numerical chromosome anomalies, play an important role in embryonic loss. Because somatic cell analysis cannot assess the risk of errors arising de novo during germ cell maturation, we investigated whether the male gametes from couples with habitual abortion carry a higher rate of anomalies than those from donors without reproductive dysfunction. Our results indicate that there is no significant difference between the two groups for the total rates of aneuploidy and structural anomalies. However, the levels of chromosome breaks and acentric fragments were significantly higher in the abortion group. The implications of this fact remain to be investigated.