Detection of maternal deoxyribonucleic acid in peripheral blood of premature and mature newborn infants.
BACKGROUND
Over the past decade, a lot of attention has been directed towards the fetomaternal and maternofetal transfer of nucleated cells and plasma DNA. In some autoimmune diseases, the fetal DNA is suspected to play an important role in the etiology of the disease. In the same way, the presence of maternal cells and free plasma DNA in fetal/newborn circulation gives rise to interesting questions. The aim of our study was to detect maternal deoxyribonucleic acid in the peripheral blood of premature and mature newborn infants.


METHODS
In the case of eight RhD-positive mothers-RhD-negative newborn pairs, peripheral blood samples were collected from the newborn infants within 35-120 min after birth. The maternal origin DNA was determined by real-time PCR amplification of the exon 7 of the RhD-positive allele.


RESULTS
In all eight cases, the RhD exon 7 was amplified during the PCR reaction.


CONCLUSIONS
The result of our study demonstrates that maternal DNA is present in the fetal peripheral circulation. The presence of maternally derived cells/DNA in the blood of newborn infants might have a role in the immunization of the newborn infants and also could be a possible explanation for 'grandmother effect' in the case of Rh-negative nulligravida patients.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. lazar_levente@hotmail.com
Levente
L
Lázár
Aacute Gnes
AG
Harmath
Zoltán
Z
Bán
Bálint
B
Nagy
Csaba
C
Papp
János
J
Rigó
Zoltán
Z
Papp
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004247:DNA / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn / Q000097:blood*; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000097:blood*; D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System / Q000097:blood
D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System; C026410:Rho(D) antigen; D004247:DNA