Fetal gender and several cytokines are associated with the number of fetal cells in maternal blood--an observational study.

Jacob Mørup Schlütter,Niels Uldbjerg,Olav Bjørn Petersen,Nanna Larsen,Britta Christensen,Steen Kølvraa,Ida Kirkegaard,David M Hougaard,Pierre Busson

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0106934

Jacob Mørup Schlütter, Niels Uldbjerg + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0106934

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Abstract

ObjectiveTo identify factors influencing the number of fetal cells in maternal blood.MethodsA total of 57 pregnant women at a gestational age of weeks 11–14 were included. The number of fetal cells in maternal blood was assessed in 30 ml of blood using specific markers for both enrichment and subsequent identification.ResultsParticipants carrying male fetuses had a higher median number of fetal cells in maternal blood than those carrying female fetuses (5 vs. 3, p = 0.04). Certain cytokines (RANTES, IL-2 and IL-5) were significantly associated with the number of fetal cells in maternal blood.ConclusionThe number of fetal cells in maternal blood is associated with certain cytokines and fetal gender.

Highlights

Screening for fetal chromosome aneuploidies in high risk pregnancies has for decades been offered in many countries
Due to this risk it has long been of great interest that both circulating fetal cells and cell-free fetal DNA can be found in maternal blood [2,3]
As a first step in increasing the yield, we have investigated the degree of variation in isolated fetal cells in maternal blood among pregnant women and correlated these variations to a number of clinical parameters such as placental volume, number of prior pregnancies [21], birth weight, nuchal translucency, pregnancyassociated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A), free beta human chorionic gonadotropin, gestational age at blood sampling [22], concentrations of selected cytokines in maternal blood, fetal gender [23], maternal age and BMI

Summary

Introduction

Screening for fetal chromosome aneuploidies in high risk pregnancies has for decades been offered in many countries. It has been envisioned that these fetal compounds can be utilized for a non-invasive and riskfree prenatal diagnostic procedure The development of such procedures has, been hampered by the fact that both cell-free fetal DNA and circulating fetal cells are very rare in blood samples from pregnant women [4,5]. The vast excess of maternal cells may be overcome by antibody-based fetal cell enrichment since different cell types express different cell type surface epitopes This is in contrast to cell-free fetal DNA, which is biologically and chemically very similar to cell-free maternal DNA, making it difficult to obtain efficient enrichment of the fraction of cell-free fetal DNA. This approach has been tried in combination with different ways of Continuous variables

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Conclusion