Presence of cell-free fetal circRNA in maternal plasma

Yuxin Ran; Ruixin Chen; Yangyu Zhao; Nanlin Yin; Hongbo Qi

doi:10.5114/aoms/146204

Presence of cell-free fetal circRNA in maternal plasma

Arch Med Sci. 2022 Feb 23;18(2):540-544. doi: 10.5114/aoms/146204. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yuxin Ran^{1

2

3}, Ruixin Chen⁴, Yangyu Zhao⁵, Nanlin Yin⁶, Hongbo Qi^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Obstetrics, The First Afliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
² Chongqing Key Laboratory of Maternal and Fetal Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
³ Joint International Research Laboratory of Reproduction and Development of Chinese Ministry of Education, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
⁴ Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, West China Second Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
⁵ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.
⁶ Center for Reproductive Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
⁷ Chongqing Health Center for Women and Children, Chongqing, China.

Abstract

Introduction: There is an urgent need to find novel stable cell-free fetal (cff-) RNA in the maternal circulation to facilitate the advance of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) to more effectively avoid birth defects.

Methods: CircRNA microarray was used to detect the cff-circRNA in plasma.

Results: There were cff-circRNAs from the fetus in the peripheral blood of pregnant women and they persisted even until at least 24 h after delivery. In addition, we found that cff-circRNA might have a specific expression pattern in gestational disease.

Conclusions: We demonstrated the presence of cff-circRNA in the maternal circulation, which may shed new light on the development of NIPT.

Keywords: cell-free fetal circRNA; maternal-fetal communication; noninvasive prenatal testing.