Search

Objective: Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR(RT-PCR) was used to detect the placenta-specific gene 4 (PLAC4) gene in the peripheral plasma of pregnant women at different gestational weeks in order to find reliable biomarkers for prenatal diagnosis of Down's syndrome and provide a new breakthrough for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis. Methods: According to the standard, 5 healthy non-pregnant women, 60 normal pregnant women (including 20 early pregnancy, 20 medium-term pregnancy and 20 late pregnancy), 8 down syndrome screening high-risk pregnant women and 5 postpartum 24 h women were randomly selected. Then 78 peripheral blood samples were collected from them. Detection of PLAC4 gene content in samples by RT-PCR and relative quantitative analysis. Results: None of healthy non-pregnant women and postpartum 24 h women have detected the PLAC4 mRNA gene, Normal pregnancy at different gestational weeks has detected the PLAC4 mRNA gene. Early pregnancy as a control, PLAC4 mRNA gene content of the medium-term pregnancy was 1.99 times of early pregnancy and late pregnancy PLAC4 mRNA content was 3.73 times of early pregnancy. Down syndrome screening high-risk pregnant women has detected the PLAC4 mRNA gene and content was 6.36 times of early pregnancy. Conclusions: PLAC4 mRNA gene is expected to become the reliable biological indicator of prenatal diagnosis of Down's syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]