title: Culture of fetal cells from maternal blood for prenatal diagnosis.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA.
authors.forename: Hélène A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Elicha Gussin
authors.forename: Sherman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Elias
mesh_terms: D001773:Blood Cells; D002469:Cell Separation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D004727:Endothelium / Q000166:cytology; D015672:Erythroid Precursor Cells; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000166:cytology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D013234:Stem Cells