Screening for fragile X syndrome among Brazilian mentally retarded male patients using PCR from buccal cell DNA

Fragile X syndrome is one of the most frequent causes of mental retardation. Since the phenotype in this syndrome is quite variable, clinical diagnosis is not easy and molecular laboratory diagnosis is necessary. Usually DNA from blood cells is used in molecular tests to detect the fragile X mutation which is characterized by an unstable expansion of a CGG repeat in the fragile X mental retardation gene (FMR1). In the present study, blood and buccal cells of 53 mentally retarded patients were molecularly analyzed for FMR1 mutation by PCR. Our data revealed that DNA extraction from buccal cells is a useful noninvasive alternative in the screening of the FMR1 mutation among mentally retarded males.