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PREIMPLANTATION GENETIC
DIAGNOSIS
Peter Braude, Susan Pickering, Frances Flinter and Caroline Mackie Ogilvie
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is an evolving technique that provides a practical
alternative to prenatal diagnosis and termination of pregnancy for couples who are at substantial
risk of transmitting a serious genetic disorder to their offspring. Samples for genetic testing are
obtained from oocytes or cleaving embryos after in vitro fertilization. Only embryos that are shown
to be free of the genetic disorders are made available for replacement in the uterus, in the hope of
establishing a pregnancy. PGD has provided unique insights into aspects of reproductive
genetics and early human development, but has also raised important new ethical issues about
assisted human reproduction.
REPRODUCTIVE RISK Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a clinical Preimplantation testing of embryos is not new3. In
The risk of establishing a diagnostic procedure that has evolved from the sub- 1968, Gardner and Edwards were able to sex rabbit
pregnancy in which a fetus stantial advances in assisted reproductive technology embryos using a sex-specific chromatin pattern in
miscarries or has a phenotypic 4
that have occurred since the first birth resulting from BLASTOCYST biopsies, before their transfer to the uterus .
abnormality as a consequence of
the familial genetic condition. in vitro fertilisation (IVF) nearly 25 years ago. PGD Preimplantation testing of embryos is also used rou-
was originally developed as an alternative to prenatal tinely in animal husbandry to produce animals of the
ANEUPLOIDY diagnosis to reduce the transmission of severe genetic preferred sex5. However, the clinical application of this
The presence of extra copies, or disease for fertile couples with a REPRODUCTIVE RISK1. In type of technology, in an attempt to prevent transmis-
fewer copies, of some
chromosomes.
PGD, cellular material from oocytes or early human sion of genetic disease in humans, is still evolving.
embryos that have been cultured in vitro (FIG. 1) is Measuring cytoplasmic enzyme activity in individual
BLASTOCYST tested for a specific genetic abnormality. After diag- embryonic cells was first investigated, as a method of
A preimplantation embryo that nosis, only the unaffected embryos are selected for PGD, for clinical conditions characterized by an absence
contains a fluid-filled cavity
transfer to the uterus. In contrast to this specific and or a reduction of specific enzyme activity. Among such
called a blastocoel.
limited application, the same technology has recently conditions are severe combined immunodeficiency dis-
been used more frequently to improve IVF success order6,7 (SCID; adenosine deaminase deficiency),
for infertile couples by screening embryos for com- LeschNyhan syndrome (LNS; hypoxanthinephospho-
mon or age-related ANEUPLOIDIES (aneuploidy screen- ribosyl transferase deficiency) and TaySachs disease8
ing, PGD-AS). (TSD; hexosaminidase deficiency). However, this
The first successful clinical application of PGD for method turned out to be of limited use when it became
genetic disease involved the use of PCR to amplify a spe- clear that it was difficult to distinguish maternally inher-
cific repeat on the Y chromosome to sex embryos in the ited enzyme activity that was present in the oocyte, from
Centre for Preimplantation presence of X-linked genetic conditions1 in this case, the embryos own enzyme activity. In the mid 1980s, the
Genetic Diagnosis, adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) and X-linked mental advent of PCR provided a far superior method for
Thomas Guy House, retardation. Substantial groundwork for the clinical genetic testing, making it possible to carry out a diag-
Guys Hospital, application of PGD to various conditions (see below for nostic test on highly concentrated and relatively pure
London SE1 9RT, UK.
Correspondence to P.B. further discussion) was undertaken in the late 1980s amplified PCR fragments that spanned the appropriate
e-mail: obgyn@kcl.ac.uk and, in 1992, the first live birth was reported following genetic mutation9. The ability to extract DNA and
doi:10.1038/nrg953 PGD for cystic fibrosis (CF)2. genetically characterize single sperm and diploid cells
Cryopreservation after biopsy. Cryopreservation of sur- several problems with the technique were encountered
plus embryos with good morphology and that have reg- subsequently. First, stringent precautions such as
ular cleavage is now routine in IVF/ICSI procedures36. using gown, mask, gloves, filtered air, separate specific
However, cryopreservation of surplus embryos after laboratory and equipment were required to avoid
biopsy is more difficult as the zona pellucida has been contamination with extraneous DNA of non-embry-
breached. Usual protocols for cryopreservation were onic origin44, amplification of which could lead to mis-
applied to embryos at the pronucleate, cleavage or blas- diagnosis. Second, it soon became clear that in some
tocyst stages of development and depend on the slow cases, the target sequence failed to amplify although it
diffusion of the cryoprotectant through an intact zona. was shown by other methods that it was present in the
These protocols might be suboptimal when used on sample. Indeed, failure of amplification of the Y-chro-
biopsied embryos, and the initial attempts at cryop- mosome-specific sequence in a male embryo led to the
reservation after biopsy resulted in a reduced survival first report of PGD misdiagnosis45,46.
rate compared with non-biopsied embryos at the same Modifications were introduced in an attempt to
stage of development37. Recently, however, pregnancies improve the technique, including the development of a
have been reported after polar body biopsy38 and after two-step NESTED PCR procedure that considerably
the cryopreservation of cleavage-stage biopsied improved sensitivity and specificity47. However, results
embryos, which had been frozen using a modified pro- in several independent laboratories indicated that,
tocol39. In addition, Lalic et al. have reported excellent despite rigorous optimization of the procedure,
survival rates of biopsied cleavage-stage embryos that sequences still occasionally failed to amplify when a sin-
were allowed to develop to the blastocyst stage before gle or a few cells were used as a source of DNA. Also,
freezing and an impressive implantation rate of 25% often only one allele at a heterozygous locus would
after embryo transfer40. These reports indicate that it amplify successfully, leading to the false assumption that
will soon be possible to cryopreserve surplus biopsied the sample was homozygous44,48,49. So, for single-gene
embryos routinely after genetic diagnosis. disorders, depending on which particular allele failed to
amplify, heterozygous embryos could potentially be
Applications of PGD genotyped as either homozygous affected, in which case
Single-gene disorders. Many genetic disorders can now they were lost from the cohort of available embryos, or
be diagnosed using DNA from single cells19,41,42. as homozygous normal and, therefore, as suitable for
However, having only one or two cells for analysis replacement48,49.Although this approach is acceptable in
imposes several limitations on the genetic diagnosis. autosomal-recessive disorders, in which there is no
There are also severe time constraints, as results must be abnormal phenotype in heterozygous carriers, in auto-
available within 1248 hours of embryo biopsy to allow somal-dominant disorders or in embryo sexing, the
the transfer of suitable embryos at an appropriate problems of undetected ALLELE DROP-OUT (ADO) or
preimplantation stage. So, there is great emphasis on the amplification failure make the misdiagnosis too likely
development of increasingly rapid, but robust, diagnos- for the single locus diagnosis to be acceptable in routine
tic assays that are effective at the level of a single cell. clinical use.
This situation is in complete contrast with that often To overcome these problems, Findlay and colleagues
experienced in prenatal diagnosis (PND), in which rela- applied the relatively new technique of fluorescent PCR
tively large quantities of pure genomic DNA can be to single-cell genetic analysis. PCR amplification with
extracted from biopsied tissue samples, which are made fluorescently tagged primers was shown to be highly
FRAGMENT LENGTH
POLYMORPHISMS
up of many hundreds of cells or primary cell cultures sensitive (~1,000-fold more sensitive than in the con-
The individual variation in the derived from them. This DNA can be used directly for a ventional analysis systems), reliable and accurate, and
length of a particular region of diagnosis that, if confirmation is required, can be fewer PCR cycles were required, thereby reducing the
DNA (such as a dinucleotide repeated several times over a period of several days. time taken to reach diagnosis50,51. In addition, if different
repeat), which, if the DNA is cut
As it is not possible to detect directly the presence of a fluorescent tags are used, or different sized amplicons
with a restriction enzyme or
amplified using PCR, gives rise specific mutation in the DNA from a single cell, all sin- are designed, several different sequences can be ampli-
to the generation of differently gle-gene PGD assays that have been developed so far rely fied simultaneously from an individual cell (multiplex
sized fragments. on PCR to amplify the relevant DNA sequence from the PCR). The simultaneous amplification of two or more
biopsy sample2. The sample is lysed to release the nuclear fragments, one containing the mutation that is associ-
NESTED PCR
A technique for improving the
DNA solution and the region of interest is amplified ated with the disorder and one or more containing
sensitivity and specificity of PCR using specific primers in ~3560 cycles of PCR. polymorphic markers that are closely linked to that
by the sequential use of two sets Amplified fragments can then be analysed according to mutation, identifies which parental allele the embryo
of oligonucleotide primers in the requirements of the assay. Several techniques have has inherited and indicates cases where ADO is likely to
two rounds of PCR. The second
been used, including restriction digestion, sequencing have taken place41,48,52. This approach substantially
pair (known as nested primers)
are located in the segment of and analysis of FRAGMENT LENGTH POLYMORPHISMS41. decreases the possibility of misdiagnosis28 and provides
DNA that is amplified by the Single-cell PCR was first applied clinically in the pio- the added assurance of a partial fingerprint of the
first pair. neering work of Handyside and colleagues, to sex embryo, confirming that the amplified fragment is of
embryos that were at risk of X-linked disease1. The basis embryonic origin44,53; in addition, because only a single
ALLELE DROP-OUT
(ADO). The failure to detect an
of the test was the successful amplification of a Y-chro- round of PCR is required, the overall time taken by the
allele in a sample or the failure to mosome-specific repeat sequence in blastomeres from procedure is substantially reduced. Multiplex PCR also
amplify an allele during PCR. male embryos only43. Despite this early clinical success, affords the opportunity to develop a generic diagnostic
strategy for a particular disease, which is independent of biopsy for genetic diagnosis (excluding screening and
the mutation present. Linkage analysis of polymorphic social sexing) showed an overall clinical pregnancy
markers that are closely linked to the disease locus rate of 22.4% per embryo transfer (17.3% per oocyte
allows the identification of embryos at high risk in a retrieval procedure undertaken)19. Biopsy was success-
broad range of patients who might be carrying different ful in 97% of cases, and the diagnosis was obtained in
mutations in the same gene54. 86% of successfully biopsied blastomeres19. For single-
Pregnancy rates after PGD for single-gene disor- gene disorders, 575 cycles resulted in 119 pregnancies
ders vary with the type of disorder and its pattern of (21% per egg retrieval and 25% per embryo transfer
inheritance. The cumulative data from the 1,197 procedure). Five misdiagnoses using PCR were
cycles received by the ESHRE PGD consortium dur- reported, two of which were for embryo sexing using
ing 19992001 data collection for all forms of embryo PCR a method that is now considered obsolete.
ACROCENTRIC CHROMOSOME
On average, half of the embryos in any sex selection SOMES, is less common and occurs in only ~1 in 1,000
A chromosome with the cycle will be unsuitable for transfer on the grounds of individuals. Carriers of balanced familial translocations
centromere located at one end. sex alone. It should be appreciated that, on average, half are nearly always phenotypically normal, as there is no
a c Alternate
13.3 13.3
p 13
13.2 13.2
13.1 13.1 13
12.3 13 13.1
12.3
12.2 12.2 12 12
12.1 12.1
11.2 11.2 11.2 11.2
11.1 11.1 11.1 11.1
11 11 11.1 11.1 Adjacent-1
11.2 11.2
12 12
12 12
13.1 13.1 21.1 21.1
13.2 13.2 21.2 21.2
13.3 13.3 21.3
14 14
22 22
15 15
23 23
21.1 21.1 Adjacent-2
q 21.2 21.2 24 24
21.3 21.3 25 25
22 22
17 der(17)
23 23
24.1 24.1
24.2 24.2 3:1
24.32 24.31 24.32 24.21
24.33 24.33
12 der(12)
b
22.3
22.2
13 21 22.1 13 Figure 5 | Chromosome translocations. a | Reciprocal
12 12 translocation. An ideogram of a reciprocal translocation
21
p between chromosomes 12 and 17. b | Robertsonian
11.2 11.2
11.2
11.1 11.1 11.1 11.1 translocation. An ideogram of a Robertsonian translocation
11.1 11.1 11.1 11.1 between chromosomes 14 and 21. c | Meiotic segregation
11.2 11.2 11.2
12 21 modes. A diagram of four possible modes of segregation that
12
13 13
might occur during meiosis in the presence of a reciprocal
22.1
22.2 translocation. The dashed lines in each panel indicate how the
q 21 21 22.3 chromosomes will segregate to the daughter cells. In the top
22 14 22 panel, one cell will receive the two normal chromosomes
der(14,21)
23 23 (top left and bottom right), whereas the other cell will receive
24.1 24.1 two translocated chromosomes (bottom left and top right). In
24.2 24.2
24.3 24.3 the two middle panels, each cell will receive one normal and
31 31 one translocated chromosome, whereas in the bottom panel,
32.1 32.1 one cell will receive a single chromosome and the other cell
32.2 32.2
32.3 32.3 three chromosomes. A fifth mode (4 : 0), in which all
14 der(14,21) chromosomes segregate to one cell only, is not shown.
net loss of genetic material. Translocations are usually chromosome that is involved in the translocation63.
diagnosed when a family member is found to be infer- FISH strategies for detecting reciprocal translocations
tile, suffers from recurrent pregnancy loss or has phe- initially involved probes that spanned64 or flanked65,66
notypically abnormal offspring arising from the pro- translocation breakpoints. These strategies had the
duction of genetically unbalanced gametes (in which advantage that embryos that had a normal chromo-
chromosomal material has been lost or gained as a some complement could be discriminated from those
result of the translocation). An ideal PGD test for that carried a balanced translocation, but were limited
patients with balanced translocations would discrimi- by the time required to develop specific probes for each
nate unambiguously between different meiotic out- translocation carrier.
comes62. If this is not possible, then the priority must be An alternative approach for determining the chro-
to increase the individuals chance of a successful preg- mosomal rearrangement status of the oocyte relies on
nancy and of having phenotypically normal offspring. polar body biopsy that uses whole chromosome-specific
As for sex selection, FISH is the method of choice for painting probes, sometimes in combination with
diagnosing chromosome rearrangements. To detect -SATELLITE repeat- and locus-specific probes67. First polar
Robertsonian translocations, chromosome enumerator bodies that are biopsied shortly after oocyte retrieval
-SATELLITE DNA
Repetitive DNA sequences
probes are used to count the chromosomes in the inter- contain highly condensed, metaphase chromosomes,
arranged in tandem arrays that phase nuclei of biopsied cells these probes can be and chromosome-specific paints can therefore be used
usually lie near the centromere. chosen to bind at any point on the long arm of each to show the relative position of the regions that are
KARYOTYPE ANALYSIS translocations), indicating that, in the latter group, have been reasonably successful, but CGH now seems
The ascertainment of factors other than aneuploid gametes might be likely to be the method of choice for enumerating the whole
chromosome constitution by the to be the main cause of infertility. More than 1,000 chromosome set in blastomeres88,89. Although the chro-
light microscopy analysis of
cycles of PGD-AS have been carried out in one US mosomes are not visualized directly, copy number of
stained metaphase
chromosomes. centre81, but clear benefits of this technique in terms every chromosomal region of 20 Mb or more can be
of live birth rate per initiated cycle have yet to be assessed using CGH90 (FIG. 7). Whole-chromosome ane-
METAPHASE SPREADS shown in any large-scale prospective controlled study. uploidies and even small structural aberrations have
The result of a cytogenetic It is important that this technology is properly evalu- been detected in blastomeres using this method, but the
method in which dividing cells
are artificially arrested at
ated78. An expensive test of unproved or limited effi- technique is limited to detecting relative imbalance
metaphase, when chromosomes cacy might be readily taken up by women who are and, therefore, changes in whole PLOIDY cannot be
are shortened and condensed. desperate to establish a pregnancy (the so-called seen88,89. The technique requires two to three days for
The fixed material from such technological imperative; REF. 82), when in some diagnosis and is therefore, at present, unsuitable for
preparations is dropped onto
cases the test might reduce their chances of preg- routine use on cleavage-stage embryos or blastocysts
microscope slides, where the
chromosomes from individual nancy by excluding normal embryos from the cohort without a cryopreservation step between biopsy and
cells form clusters or spreads, available for transfer. Future research into the inci- transfer. Improvements in the protocols might shorten
which can be stained and dence of individual chromosome aneuploidies in this time and allow the diagnosis and transfer of fresh
analysed. early embryos might provide the means to design a material. Until now, several ongoing pregnancies and
PLOIDY
more specific test that uses FISH probes for the most the birth of one healthy child have been reported using
The number of sets of common early abnormalities. Alternatively, other this technique39,91.
chromosomes in a cell (n). technologies, such as comparative genomic DNA microarray analysis is a rapidly evolving
Normal human somatic cells are hybridization (CGH) or microarrays might be used method of molecular analysis that could find several
diploid (2n), with 2 sets of 23
in future to allow the screening of the whole genome potential uses in PGD92,93. Although it is primarily used
chromosomes.
for genetic imbalance68 (see below). for gene expression analysis, microarrays could be used
in routine PGD in screens for mutations in any one
Future developments gene, or screens of several genes for several mutations.
Comparative genomic hybridization. Although PGD- Embryos could then potentially be tested for serious
AS has been shown to improve implantation rate in susceptibility traits loci, such as the breast cancer 1
some patient groups, at present, only a limited subset (BRCA1) gene. Microarrays could also be useful in
of chromosomes can be screened using traditional PGD of specific diseases that are severely genetically
FISH protocols80,83. Ideally, cytogenetic tests would heterogeneous and for which there are few common
involve a full KARYOTYPE ANALYSIS on metaphase chromo- mutations, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
somes. Unfortunately, preparing METAPHASE SPREADS Such an approach could provide a useful generic test-
directly from embryonic blastomeres by traditional ing procedure that is applicable to all patients that
methods has proved difficult, with only a small pro- carry this disease. Finally, microarrays could replace
portion of the blastomeres in any one embryo giving the metaphase spreads that are now used to assess
interpretable results84,85. chromosome imbalance during CGH. At present, tech-
Alternative methods for karyotyping, including fus- nical limitations, such as the paucity of material that is
ing polar bodies or blastomeres with enucleated human available for hybridization, sensitivity and reliability of
oocytes or with bovine oocytes to induce mitosis86,87 the data, and the cost of producing appropriate
microarrays are likely to hinder their application in
PGD for some considerable time.
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(1983). Provides a useful overview of the ethical issues that http://www.hfea.gov.uk
The first evidence to suggest that some human surround gender selection for non-medical reasons. Access to this interactive links box is free online.