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Mammals inherit two complete sets of chromosomes, one from the father and one from the mother, and most autosomal genes are expressed from both maternal and paternal alleles. Imprinted genes show expression from only one member of the gene pair (allele) and their expression are determined by the parent during production of the gametes. Imprinted genes represent only a small subset of mammalian genes that are present but not imprinted in other vertebrates. Genomic imprints are erased in both germlines and reset accordingly; thus, reversible depending on the parent of origin and leads to differential expression in the course of development. Genomic imprinting has been studied in humans since the early 1980's and accounts for several human disorders. The first report in humans occurred in Prader-Willi syndrome due to a paternal deletion of chromosome 15 or uniparental disomy 15 (both chromosome 15s from only one parent) and similar genetic disturbances were reported later in Angelman syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paternal uniparental disomy for chromosome 14 (patUPD14) is a rare condition, this being the eighth report. A male infant, born prematurely, was noted to have extremely lax skin and bilateral inguinal hernias. Skin biopsy confirmed the clinical diagnosis of congenital cutis laxa, but this did not explain the limb abnormalities. Radiographic findings (particularly the "coat-hanger" configuration of the ribs on the chest radiograph), suggested a diagnosis of patUPD14, which was confirmed following DNA analysis. The patient died after prolonged respiratory failure. This combination of patUPD14 and congenital cutis laxa has not previously been described. Radiology can play a pivotal role in guiding the geneticist's choice of investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association of uniparental disomy (UPD) and short stature has been reported for different chromosomes and in several conditions. Therefore, we investigated a cohort of 21 patients referred because of intrauterine and postnatal growth retardation for UPD of chromosomes 2, 7, 9, 14, 16, and 20. Typing of short tandem repeats showed maternal UPD(14) and maternal UPD(20) in two cases. In the first case, an interstitial UPD(14) was detected and the growth retarded newborn showed some additional clinical signs in common with the putative "maternal UPD(14) syndrome". The maternal UPD(20) patient showed minor features. However, since it is only the second maternal UPD(20) case it is too early to delineate a specific syndrome and the role of this constitution in growth remains to be investigated. Our data suggest that searching for UPD in growth retarded patients is a helpful approach to getting more information on the role of UPD in growth retardation. Based on our results, general considerations and indications for UPD testing are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]