Recombinant DNA Methods for Prenatal Diagnosis

Excerpt

An estimated 30 000 patients in the U. S. used prenatal diagnosis services in 1982. Even greater use of these services is likely to develop as the new recombinant DNA methods widen the spectrum of diseases amenable to prenatal diagnosis. Recombinant methods examine the gene (DNA), not its product (a protein). Any nucleated cell (aminocytes or chorionic villi) can be used with these methods, which gets around the impossibility of studying inaccessible specialized tissues in the fetus, such as blood or liver. The risk of chorionic villus biopsy (1) is presently unknown; the risk of pregnancy loss from obtaining amniotic