Prenatal diagnosis and molecular cytogenetic characterization of a small supernumerary marker chromosome derived from inv dup(15).

OBJECTIVE:We present prenatal diagnosis and molecular cytogenetic characterization of an inverted duplication of proximal chromosome 15 [inv dup(15)] presenting as a small supernumerary marker chromosome (sSMC) at amniocentesis associated with concomitant microduplication of 8q22.1. MATERIALS AND METHODS:A 39-year-old woman underwent amniocentesis at 16 weeks of gestation because of advanced maternal age, and the result was 47, XY, +mar dn. The woman requested for repeat amniocentesis at 20 weeks of gestation. Array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH), fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), quantitative fluorescent polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR) and DNA methylation analysis were applied to determine the nature of the sSMC. RESULTS:aCGH on the uncultured amniocytes revealed the result of arr 8q22.1 (93,918,763-96,618,539) × 3.0, arr 15q11.2q13.2 (22,765,628-30,658,876) × 4.0, arr 15q13.2q13.3 (30,653,877-32,509,926) × 3.0 [GRCh37 (hg19)]. Interphase FISH analysis using RP11-34H12 [15q13.2; Texas Red, 30,709,033-30,893,021 (hg19)] on 100 uncultured amniocytes showed that 38 cells had three signals, 45 cells had four signals and 27 cells had two signals. The parental bloods had normal aCGH results. The karyotype of cultured amniocytes was 47, XY, +inv dup(15) (pter→q13::q13→pter) which was confirmed by metaphase FISH analysis. No informative markers could be found in QF-PCR analysis. DNA methylation analysis on cord blood confirmed a maternal origin of the 15q11-q13 gene dosage increase with a result of 15q11.2 SNRPN DNA hypermethylation. Postnatal cytogenetic analysis on cord blood, umbilical cord and placenta showed the results consistent with the prenatal diagnosis. CONCLUSION:Molecular cytogenetic techniques are useful for rapid diagnosis of an inv dup(15) chromosome presenting as an sSMC at amniocentesis.