Irina Banzola

Rapid clearance of mRNA for PLAC1 gene in maternal blood after delivery.

Objective: To evaluate (1) whether the presence of mRNA for the specific trophoblast gene PLAC1 in maternal whole blood is pregnancy-specific, and (2) whether delivery would result in the clearance of mRNA from maternal blood. Methods: Sixteen pregnant women at term (41 completed weeks’ gestation) were enrolled in the study. Blood samples were obtained before the onset of labor and 24 h after delivery. Eight healthy donors (3 males and 5 non-pregnant women) were used as controls. Total RNA was extracted by means of ABI Prism 6100. A quantitative evaluation was obtained by means of real-time PCR. Wilcoxon test was used to evaluate differences between time intervals. Results: Median concentrations of PLAC1 mRNA relative to the standardization curve (see below) were 44 (2.9–675) ng/ml and 0.48 (0.05–10.7) ng/ml respectively for pre- and post-delivery samples (p value <0.001). Male and non-pregnant female controls did not show any signal of cDNA amplification. Conclusion: mRNA transcripts from a placenta-expressed specific gene are detectable in maternal blood and rapidly disappear after delivery. Such an mRNA provides a gender-independent marker for non-invasive prenatal gene expression profiling, and can open new perspectives to monitor those conditions associated to trophoblast damage as well as preeclampsia.

PLAC4 and β‐HCG mRNA levels are not altered in the maternal circulation of pregnancies with trisomy 21

β‐Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) and pregnancy‐associated plasma protein (PAPP‐A) are placentally produced proteins whose levels are altered in pregnancies with trisomy 21. PLAC4 is located on chromosome 21 and its expression is restricted to the placenta. Here we investigated whether the levels of β‐HCG‐, PAPP‐A‐ and PLAC4 mRNA could be able to discriminate pregnancies whose fetus is affected by trisomy 21.

Isolation of serum nucleic acids for fetal DNA analysis: comparison of manual and automated extraction methods.

To investigate the performance of an automated system for the extraction of cell‐free DNA of maternal and fetal origin from stored serum samples for subsequent quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis.