how to distinguish between LOH and aUPD? - by using combo of microsatellite and MLPA (Oct/06/2009 )

Hi, I would really appreciate it, if someone could point me in the right direction on how to answer the following question.

question:

How would you distinguish between LOH and aUPD by way of using microsatellite analysis and MLPA. are there any textbooks or journal articles I can read to find this out? i did some searches but couldnt find anything

this is what i know so far:

aUPD is Uniparental disomy - ocurs when a person inherits two copies of a chromosome pair from one parent and no copy from the other parent. but normally a baby will inherit one copy of each chromosome from the mother and father. so aUPD is when having the SAME copy of the chromosome. a form of LOH

but what does the a stand for in aUPD ?

also i know that you can use microsatellite markers to tell when LOH has occured as you will see a loss of one of the alleles. but how does MLPA work? anyone know any good sites that explain it ?

MLPA is = Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification (MLPA) - high resolution method to detect copy number variation in genomic sequences.

but how would microsatellite markers and MLPA be able to tell you whether its a LOH or a aUPD ? basically whether you have got a REAL loss of one of the chromosomes, or a duplication of the SAME chromosome.
THANK you so much in advance!!! I REALLY appreciate it !!!

i cant edit my original post.

so just wanted to say. i know what the A stands for, which is ACQUIRED uniparental disomy.

still working on how to tell the difference between LOH and aUPD