Androgenesis as a cause of hydatidiform mole

Abstract

Q-band chromosome studies were done in 3 molar conceptuses and their parents, with special attention to six pairs of chromosomes (No. 3, 13--15, 21, and 22) in which polymorphic variants occur frequently. Those six pairs of chromosomes were uniformly homomorphic in moles, whereas at least one of them was heteromorphic in both paternal and maternal cells. Closer analyses provided evidence strongly suggesting that the moles inherited two morphologically identical haploid sets from the father and none from the mother. Thus androgenesis seemed causally related to pathogenesis of complete hydatidiform moles.