Summary
Satellite associations were analysed in differentially stained human leukocyte chromosomes, obtained from four patients with Down's syndrome and four normal probands. A particular type of close association between two acrocentrics, showing a non-random arrangement of sister chromatids in a concordant dark-to-dark and light-to-light alignment, was found to be more common in patients with Down's syndrome compared with the normal controls. Apart from this particular type of association, sister chromatids are randomly arranged in satellite associations between two acrocentrics in both groups of probands. Considerable differences in the mean frequencies of satellite associations between first and second metaphases of the same individual were found in some probands of both groups of individuals. Since a high degree of inter-individual variability in the proliferative response of human leukocytes in culture is well established, the use of BUdR-Giemsa labeling for comparative analysis of satellite association frequencies is suggested.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beek B, Obe G (1979) Sister chromatid exchanges in human leukocyte chromosomes: Spontaneous and induced frequencies in early- and late-proliferating cells. Hum Genet 49:51–61
Bobrow M, Heritage J (1980) Nonrandom segregation of nucleolar organizing chromosomes at mitosis? Nature 288:79–81
Cohen MM, Shaw MW (1967) The association of acrocentric chromosomes in 1000 normal human male metaphase cells. Ann Hum Genet 31:129–137
Cooke P, Curtis DJ (1974) General and specific patterns of acrocentric associations in parents of mongol children. Hum Genet 23:279–287
Crossen PE, Morgan WF (1977) Analysis of human lymphocyte cell cycle time in culture measured by sister chromatid differential staining. Exp Cell Res 104:453–457
Davison EV, Roberts DF, Callow MH (1981) Satellite association in Down's syndrome. Hum Genet 56:309–313
Evans HJ, Buckland RA, Pardue ML (1974) Location of the genes coding for 18S and 28S ribosomal RNA in the human genome. Chromosoma 48:405–426
Ferguson-Smith MA, Handmaker SD (1961) Observations on the satellited human chromosomes. Lancet 1:638–640
Hansson A, Mikkelsen M (1978) The origin of the extra chromosome 21 in Down's syndrome. Studies of fluorescence variants and satellite association in 26 informative families. Cytogenet Cell Genet 20:194–203
Harnden DS (1961) The chromosomes. In: Penrose LS (ed) Recent advances in human genetics. Little and Brown, Boston, pp 19–29
Hayata I, Oshimura M, Sandberg AA (1977) N-band polymorphism of human acrocentric chromosomes and its relevance to satellite association. Hum Genet 36:55–61
Henderson AS, Warburton D, Atwood KC (1973) Ribosomal DNA connectives between human acrocentric chromosomes. Nature 245:95–97
Kukharenko VJ, Kuliev AM, Grinberg KN, Terskikh VV (1974) Cell cycles in human diploid and aneuploid strains. Hum Genet 24: 285–296
Mattevi MS, Salzano FM (1975) Effect of sex, age and cultivation time on number of satellites and acrocentric associations in man. Hum Genet 29:265–270
Miller DA, Tantravahi R, Dev VG, Miller OJ (1977) Frequency of satellite association is correlated with amount of Ag-staining of the nuecleolus organizer region. Am J Hum Genet 29:490–502
Nankin HR (1970) In vitro alteration of satellite association and nucleolar persistence in mitotic human lymphocytes. Cytogenetics 9:42–51
Obe G, Beek B The human leukocyte test system. In: Hollaender A, Serres FJ de (eds) Chemical mutagens — Principles and methods for their detection, vol 7, Plenum Press New York (to be published)
Paton GR, Silver MF, Allison AC (1974) Comparison of cell cycle time in normal and trisomic cells. Hum Genet 23:173–182
Perry P, Wolff S (1974) New Giemsa method for the differential staining of sister chromatids. Nature 251:156–158
Segal DJ, McCoy EE (1973) Studies on Down's syndrome in tissue culture. I. Growth rate and protein contents of fibroblast cultures. J Cell Physiol 83:85–90
Sigmund J, Schwarzacher HG, Mikelsaar A-V (1979) Satellite association frequency and number of nucleoli depend on cell cycle duration and NOR-activity. Hum Genet 50:81–91
Taysi K (1975) Satellite association: Giemsa banding studies in parents of Down's syndrome patients. Clin Genet 8:319–323
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Beek, B. BUdR-Giemsa labeling and satellite association in human leukocytes. Hum Genet 59, 240–244 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00283672
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00283672