overexpression of esterase d in kidney from trisomy 13 fetuses human trisomy 13 patau syndrome occurs in approximately 1 in 5000 live births it is compatible with life but prolonged survival is rare anomalies often involve the urogenital cardiac craniofacial and central nervous systems it is possible that these abnormalities may be due to the overexpression of developmentally important genes on chromosome 13 the expression of esterase d localized to chromosome 13q1411 has been investigated in both muscle and kidney from trisomy 13 fetuses and has been compared with normal age and sexmatched fetal tissues by using northern analysis more than a twofold increase in expression of esterase d was found in the kidney of two trisomy 13 fetuses with normal levels in a third overexpression was not seen in the muscle tissues from these fetuses