PubMed · 15503274
The source did not provide an abstract. Follow the original record for more information.
Explore connections, maps & timelines
M A Ferguson-Smith. 2004. Which prenatal screening protocol?. https://doi.org/10.1002/pd.1038
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.
KEEP EXPLORING
CONTEXT: No molecular biological tests are available to monitor the ongoing development of human fetuses in vivo. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether cell-free fetal messenger RNA (mRNA) in amniotic fluid can be detected using oligonucleotide microarrays to study large-scale gene expression in living human fetuses, with analysis of sex, gestational age, and fetal pathology as variables. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS: Four samples of cell-free amniotic fluid were analyzed from pregnant women between 20 and 32 weeks' gestation and undergoing amnioreduction for polyhydramnios associated with twin-twin transfusion syndrome or hydrops fetalis (cases). The control consisted of 6 pooled amniotic fluid samples from women at 17 weeks' gestation and undergoing genetic amniocentesis. After extraction from the normally discarded fraction of amniotic fluid, RNA was amplified twice, labeled, and analyzed using gene expression microarrays. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Relative mRNA expression in cell-free samples of amniotic fluid from fetuses with polyhydramnios at different gestational ages vs cell-free amniotic fluid from a pooled control. RESULTS: Thirty-six percent of 22,283 probe sets represented on the arrays were present in the cell-free amniotic fluid, and a median of 20% of all probe sets differed between cases and the pooled control. Only male samples expressed 1 Y chromosome transcript. The expression of some developmental transcripts, such as surfactant proteins, mucins, and keratins, changed with gestational age by up to 64-fold. A water transporter gene transcript was increased up to 18-fold in both twin-twin transfusion samples. Placental gene transcripts were not present in any samples. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study demonstrates that cell-free fetal mRNA can be extracted from amniotic fluid and successfully hybridized to gene expression microarrays. Preliminary analysis suggests that gene expression changes can be detected in fetuses of different sexes, gestational age, and disease status. Cell-free mRNA in amniotic fluid appears to originate from the fetus and not the placenta.
OBJECTIVE: To compare maternal age- and education-specific use of amniocentesis in France and the United States. METHODS: We used two nationally representative datasets, National Perinatal Survey of 1998 in France (n = 12 816) and National Center for Health Statistics birth data for 1997 in the United States (n = 3 799 975). Analyses included binomial regression with test of interactions between country, maternal age and education. RESULTS: Amniocentesis use was more than threefold greater in France than in the United States (Risk Ratio (RR) 3.2, 95% CI, 3.1-3.4). This was true across maternal age and education groups. Differences in use of amniocentesis were greatest, however, for women with lower levels of education and older (>/=38 years) women. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest greater use and lesser disparities in maternal age- and education-specific use of amniocentesis in France as compared to that in the United States. These differences may be due to several factors, including differences in women's cultural values and preferences. They may also represent barriers to effective access to prenatal testing, particularly for women in lower socioeconomic groups, in the United States.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.