Abstract

49,XXXXX, also known as pentasomy X, penta X, or XXXXX syndrome, is a chromosomal aneuploidy where females have five X chromosomes rather than the normal two. It is unclear exactly how rare it is, but it appears to affect fewer than 1 in 100,000 women.

Signs and symptoms

The main characteristics of 49,XXXXX are intellectual disability, short stature and craniofacial abnormalities. Other physical traits include the following:

- Small head

- Ear abnormalities

- Widely spaced eyes with upward slanting palpebral fissures and epicanthal folds

- Short neck

- Broad nose with a depressed nasal bridge

- Hyperextension of the elbows

- Dental abnormalities and cleft palate

- Clinodactyly of the 5th finger

- Deformities of the feet

- Heart defects

Causes

The aneuploidy is thought to be caused by problems occurring during meiosis, either in the mother or in both the mother and father. Successive nondisjunctions have been observed in the mother of at least one patient.

The features of the syndrome likely arise due to failure of X-inactivation and the presence of multiple X chromosomes from the same parent causing problems with parental imprinting. In theory, X-inactivation should occur and leave only one X chromosome active in each cell. However, failure of this process has been observed in one individual studied. The reason for this is thought to be the presence of an unusually large, and imbalanced, number of X chromosomes interfering with the process.