• Mansour Zamanpoor, Rozita Rosli, Mohd Nazri Yazid, Zaheed Husain, Norshariza Nordin, and Karuppiah Thilakavathy.
• Genetic Medicine Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia.
• J. Matern. Fetal. Neonatal. Med. 2013 Jul 1;26(10):960-6.

ObjectiveTo quantify circulating fetal DNA (fDNA) levels in the second and third trimesters of normal healthy pregnant individuals and pregnant women with the following clinical conditions: gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), iron deficiency anemia and gestational hypertension (GHT).MethodsThe SRY gene located on the Y chromosome was used as a unique fetal marker. The fDNA was extracted from maternal plasma and the SRY gene concentrations were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification using TaqMan dual labeled probe system.ResultsNo significant differences were observed in the mean fDNA concentration between normal and GDM pregnancy samples (p > 0.05) and also between normal and anemic pregnancy samples (p > 0.05) in both trimesters, but significant differences were observed between the third trimester normal and GHT pregnancy samples (p = 0.001). GDM and iron deficiency anemia do not affect the levels of fDNA in maternal plasma while GHT significantly elevates the levels of fDNA in maternal plasma.ConclusionsIncreased amount of circulating fDNA in maternal plasma could be used for early identification of adverse pregnancies. GDM and anemia do not affect the levels of fDNA in maternal plasma while GHT significantly elevates the levels of fDNA in maternal plasma. Hence, the elevated fDNA values could be used as a potential screening marker in pregnancies complicated with GHT but not with GDM and iron deficiency anemia.

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