Ex-Vivo Expansion of Fetal Cells Isolated from Maternal Circulation
Radhakrishna Nagumantri1, Animisha Mokkapati1, Radha Tatapudi2, Madhuri Chintala2, Satyanarayana Rentala1 and Aruna Lakshmi Komarraju11Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Technology, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam 530 045, Andhra Pradesh, India.
2Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam 530 002, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Corresponding Author E-mail: mail.dr.satya@gmail.com
Abstract: Prenatal diagnosis uses a variety of techniques to find out the health of the fetus. Without the information acquired by prenatal diagnosis, there could be an inappropriate result for the fetus or the mother or both. Several non-invasive and invasive techniques are available for prenatal examination. Any of these techniques can be applied depending on the time periods of the gestational age. Most of the current methods of fetal diagnosis are invasive and carry accuracy, albeit small procedure-related risks are possible. Due to the risks and testing costs, only the women older than 35 years and having a high risk for fetal aneuploidy are currently screened for prenatal testing. The isolation and analysis of fetal cells isolated from maternal circulation would allow non-invasive prenatal diagnosis. Due to the scanty number of fetal cells culturing fetal cells would benefit to increase the number of fetal cells in vitro. Design and development of culture conditions to expand fetus-derived cells may lead to a new selection process for obtaining prenatal diagnosis data through fetal cells. In this paper several ex vivo expansion techniques for fetal cells isolated from maternal circulation were discussed. Cultured fetal cells could be a tool for metaphase analysis for the diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities.
Keywords: Prenatal diagnosis; fetal cells; markers for fetal cells; isolation of fetal cells and culturing of fetal cells Back to TOC