POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION ANALYSIS OF THE CYSTIC-FIBROSIS DELTA-F508 MUTATION IN HUMAN BLASTOMERES FOLLOWING OOCYTE INJECTION OF A SINGLE SPERM FROM A CARRIER

The efficiency of the polymerase chain reaction (PER) in detecting the cystic fibrosis (CF) DELTAF508 mutation (which is the most common mutation of CF) was assessed in single human blastomeres. Twenty-one human immature oocytes (germinal-vesicle-stage oocytes) that had been donated for research were matured in vitro and a single spermatozoon from a carrier of the CF DELTAF508 mutation was injected into the ooplasm. Fourteen embryos were obtained after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). PER analysis was carried out on 70 single blastomeres isolated from these 14 embryos. The results showed that the efficiency of DNA amplification by PER in single nucleate blastomeres was 94 per cent (59/63). There were no false-positive results since none of the blank samples or the blastomeres without a nucleus showed an amplified signal. We found that nine embryos were homozygous for the unaffected genotype and that four embryos were heterozygous since they contained both the unaffected and the DELTAF508 genotype. In a four-cell embryo, we observed the homozygous unaffected genotype in one blastomere and a heterozygous DELTAF508/unaffected genotype in the other three blastomeres.