Detection of maternal DNA in umbilical cord blood by polymerase chain reaction amplification of minisatellite sequences.
One of the concerns about the use of cord blood as a source of hematopoietic stem cells for allogeneic transplantation is the possibility of contamination by maternal cells which could cause life-threatening GVHD. We have assessed cord blood contamination using PCR analysis of several minisatellite regions to detect maternal DNA. Eighty mother-cord pairs were obtained for this study. In one case there were no specific maternal alleles at any loci and, therefore, cord blood could not be evaluated. Thus, there was a total of 79 informative cases for the detection of maternal cells in the fetal circulation. In most cases, the level of detection was between 0.5 and 1%. We detected maternal DNA in the cord blood sample in only one case (1.26%), and the analysis of dilution experiments led to an estimate of 0.5-1% maternal cells. In conclusion, using PCR amplification of hypervariable regions, maternal DNA is very rarely detected in the cord blood collected at birth, although this approach has a relatively low level of sensitivity.
Briz
M
M
Department of Hematology, Hospital Puerta de Hierro, Madrid, Spain.
Regidor
C
C
Monteagudo
D
D
Somolinos
N
N
Garaulet
C
C
Forés
R
R
Posada
M
M
Fernández
M N
MN
D002678:Chimera / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D004247:DNA / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000166:cytology; D005838:Genotype; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000209:etiology; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011247:Pregnancy; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
D004247:DNA