Y specific sequence gene analysis of single fetal nucleated erythroblasts from the peripheral blood of pregnant women.

The single cell isolation technique was used to detect fetal nucleated erythroblasts (FNRBCs) at a single cell level from the peripheral blood of pregnant women in order to investigate the feasibility of this method for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis. Single fetal nucleated erythroblasts were isolated from the peripheral blood samples from 51 pregnant women (14 to 26 weeks of gestation) by micromanipulation techniques after density gradient centrifugation. Nested polymerase chain reaction method was used to amplify the SRY gene. It was found that the concordance rate of amplification results with real fetal sex was 82.61%. The sensitivity and specificity were 80% and 87.50% respectively. It was suggested that it is feasible and promising in non invasive prenatal diagnosis to detect fetal nucleated erythroblasts at a single cell level by using micromanipulation techniques.