Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Culture of fetal cells from maternal blood for prenatal diagnosis

2002; Oxford University Press; Volume: 8; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/humupd/8.6.523

1460-2369

Hélène A. Gussin,

Fetal and Pediatric Neurological Disorders

The isolation and analysis of fetal cells from maternal blood would allow non-invasive prenatal genetic screening and diagnosis. Over the past decade, progress has been made towards this goal using various enrichment strategies and analysis by fluorescence in-situ hybridization with chromosome-specific probes and PCR. One method that is currently being explored involves culturing fetal cells. Developing conditions which allow the number of fetal-derived cells to expand in culture and the number of maternally derived cells to be suppressed in culture may lead to a new selection process for obtaining fetal cells. Culturing of fetal cells from maternal blood could make possible conventional metaphase analysis of fetal cells for diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities.