Slunga-Tallberg A, Knuutila S
Department of Medical Genetics, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Eur J Hum Genet. 1995;3(4):264-70. doi: 10.1159/000472307.
Nucleated erythrocytes found in the venous blood of pregnant women have been seen as the most promising type of cell for prenatal diagnosis of fetal abnormalities because of their short life span and their scarcity in the venous blood of healthy nonpregnant women. However, this review demonstrates that a great proportion of the nucleated erythrocytes found in venous blood during pregnancy are of maternal origin and that pregnancy per se induces nucleated erythrocytes of maternal origin to appear in the peripheral blood. More efficient and specific enrichment techniques are therefore needed to obtain purified nucleated erythrocytes of fetal origin in such quantities that reliable prenatal diagnoses can be performed.
