1. Quantitative variation analysis of fetal DNA in maternal plasma samples collected before and after amniocentesis.
- Author
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Bussani, Cecilia, Di Tommaso, Mariarosaria, Cioni, Riccardo, Pasquini, Lucia, Quitadamo, Laura, and Scarselli, Gianfranco
- Subjects
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ACADEMIC medical centers , *AMNIOCENTESIS , *DNA , *KARYOTYPES , *MATERNAL age , *CASE studies , *POLYMERASE chain reaction , *RESEARCH funding , *STATISTICS , *DATA analysis - Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate possible procedure-related variations in the levels of cell-free fetal DNA (fDNA) in maternal plasma of women undergoing genetic amniocentesis. Blood samples were collected at 16-18 weeks' gestation from 33 pregnant women attending the Fetal Medicine Unit for genetic amniocentesis. For each woman, two blood samples were obtained: the first immediately before amniocentesis and the second one 15 min after the procedure. A real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay, using primers for SRY and beta-globin genes, was used to assess fDNA concentrations in maternal plasma. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for statistical analysis. The karyotype on cultured amniocytes showed that 15 out of 33 women had a male fetus. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction results, on maternal plasma sample pairs from known male pregnancies, showed no significant variations of fDNA correlated to amniocentesis ( P = 0.394). Our preliminary study suggests that amniocentesis, although invasive, could be associated with minimal, if any, disruption at the fetal-maternal interface, as revealed by the lack of substantial modifications of fDNA levels in maternal circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2011
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