1. Do fetal extravillous trophoblasts circulate in maternal blood postpartum?
- Author
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Looij, Anne, Singh, Ripudaman, Hatt, Lotte, Ravn, Katarina, Jeppesen, Line D., Nicolaisen, Bolette H., Kølvraa, Mathias, Vogel, Ida, Schelde, Palle, Uldbjerg, Niels, and van de Looij, Anne
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SHORT tandem repeat analysis , *FLUORESCENCE in situ hybridization , *CHORIONIC villus sampling , *Y chromosome , *PRENATAL diagnosis , *RESEARCH , *TROPHOBLAST , *DNA , *CYTOMETRY , *RESEARCH methodology , *EVALUATION research , *COMPARATIVE studies , *PUERPERIUM , *QUESTIONNAIRES , *MENTAL health surveys , *RESEARCH funding , *POLYMERASE chain reaction - Abstract
Introduction: Circulating fetal extravillous trophoblasts may offer a superior alternative to cell-free fetal DNA for noninvasive prenatal testing. Cells of fetal origin are a pure source of fetal genome; hence, unlike the cell-free noninvasive prenatal test, the fetal cell-based noninvasive prenatal test is not expected to be affected by maternal DNA. However, circulating fetal cells from previous pregnancies may lead to confounding results.Material and Methods: To study whether fetal trophoblast cells persist in maternal circulation postpartum, blood samples were collected from 11 women who had given birth to a boy, with blood sampling at 1-3 days (W0), 4-5 weeks (W4-5), around 8 weeks (W8) and around 12 weeks (W12) postpartum. The existence of fetal extravillous trophoblasts was verified either by X and Y chromosome fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis or by short tandem repeat analysis. To exclude technological bias in isolating fetal cells, blood samples were also collected from 10 pregnant women between a gestational age of 10 and 14 weeks, the optimal time frame for cell-based noninvasive prenatal test sampling. All the samples were processed according to protocols established by ARCEDI Biotech for fetal extravillous trophoblast enrichment and isolation.Results: Fetal extravillous trophoblasts were found in all the 10 samples from pregnant women between a gestational age of 10 and 14 weeks. However, only 4 of 11 blood samples taken from women at 1-3 days postpartum rendered fetal extravillous trophoblasts, and only 2 of 11 samples rendered fetal extravillous trophoblasts at 4 weeks postpartum.Conclusions: In this preliminary dataset on few pregnancies, none of the samples rendered any fetal cells at or after 8 weeks postpartum, showing that cell-based noninvasive prenatal testing based on fetal extravillous trophoblasts is unlikely to be influenced by circulating cells from previous pregnancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2020
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