title: Improvement of methods for the isolation of cell-free fetal DNA from maternal plasma: comparison of a manual and an automated method.
abstract: The low amount of cell-free fetal DNA present in the maternal circulation poses significant challenges to its use in future diagnostic applications, and ways of increasing the yield of this potential marker extracted from maternal plasma are constantly being explored. In this study, we compared two methods of DNA extraction, a manual and an automated method. Our analysis revealed that although the manual method yielded overall more total cell-free DNA, the automated system yielded higher quantities of cell-free DNA of fetal origin. Furthermore, the DNA isolated using the automated system appeared to be of greater purity than that isolated by the manual method, with fewer inhibitors to downstream real-time PCR reactions.
authors.affiliation: University Women's Hospital/Department of Research, Spitalstrasse 21, CH 4031 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Dorothy J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Bernhard G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Holzgreve
authors.forename: Sinuhe
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hahn
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000097:blood / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008431:Maternal-Fetal Exchange; D010949:Plasma / Q000737:chemistry*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D011247:Pregnancy
chemical_list: D004247:DNA