Incidence of chromosome 1 disomy in human sperm estimated by the primed in situ (PRINS) labeling technique.

The primed in situ (PRINS) labeling technique was used to determine the rate of disomy of chromosomes 1 and 16 in sperm of two normal subjects. Two different but specific primers (alpha-satellite and satellite II) for chromosome 1 were used in parallel experiments to test the efficiency of PRINS labeling in sperm nuclei. A minimum of 10,000 sperm nuclei per chromosome primer was analyzed, leading to a total number of 41,651 scored spermatozoa. Similar rates of chromosome 1 disomy (mean values, 0.18% and 0.20%) were found in both donors when the alpha-satellite and satellite II primers were used, demonstrating the reliability of PRINS labeling on sperm nuclei. For chromosome 16, the disomy rate among the two donors ranged from 0.20% to 0.24%. This study confirms that PRINS provides a rapid and efficient method for in situ chromosomal screening of sperm nuclei.