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Prenatal Diagnosis of Genetic Abnormalities Using Fetal CD34⁺ Stem Cells in Maternal Circulation and Evidence They Do Not Affect Diagnosis in Later Pregnancies

^a Centre of Perinatal and Reproductive Medicine, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy;
^b Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, Division of Clinical Oncology, University of Torino, Torino, Italy;
^c Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Haemathology and Clinical Immunology Section, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

Key Words. Fetal stem cells • Maternal blood • Noninvasive prenatal diagnosis • Isolation • Culture

Gian Carlo Di Renzo, Ph.D., Centre of Perinatal and Reproductive Medicine, University of Perugia, Policlinico Monteluce, Via Brunamonti, 06122 Perugia, Italy. Telephone: 39-075-5720563; Fax: 39-075-5729271; e-mail: direnzo{at}unipg.it

In the present study, we report a new method for enrichment and analysis of fetal CD34⁺ stem cells after culture in order to determine whether it is feasible for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis. We also determined whether fetal CD34⁺ stem cells persist in maternal blood after delivery and assessed whether they have an impact on noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of genetic abnormalities.

Peripheral blood samples were obtained from 35 pregnant women, 13 non-pregnant women who had given birth to male offsprings, 12 women who had never been pregnant, and eight pregnant women with male fetuses.

CD34⁺ stem cells were enriched and either cultured for prenatal diagnosis or analyzed with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)/polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to determine peristance in maternal blood.

Fetal/maternal cells can be isolated and grown "in vitro" to provide enough cells for a more accurate fetal sex or aneuploid prediction than is provided by unenriched and uncultured CD34⁺ stem cells.

The presence of fetal cells in maternal blood samples from mothers who had given birth to male offspring was found in 3 of 13 blood samples. PCR was positive for Y chromosome in one woman who had never been pregnant. Analysis of cultured CD34⁺ stem cells from mothers with Y PCR positivity did not detect any male cells in any samples. Even if PCR positivity is due to persistence of fetal stem cells from previous pregnancies, it does not seem to affect this new system of enrichment, culture, and FISH analysis of CD34⁺ fetal stem cells.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				H. A. Elicha Gussin, F. Z. Bischoff, R. Hoffman, and S. Elias Endothelial Precursor Cells in the Peripheral Blood of Pregnant Women Reproductive Sciences, November 1, 2002; 9(6): 357 - 361. [Abstract] [PDF]