Question

Just a few years ago, biologist and medical personnel were surprised to learn that fetal cells can escape and enter the mother's blood. How can these cells be used in fetal testing?

Answer 1

Fetal cells in the mother's blood can be used for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), which helps in detecting genetic abnormalities and determining the Rh status of the fetus without posing any risk to it.

Step-by-step explanation:

Fetal cells can escape into the mother's blood and are used in fetal testing, which provides a non-invasive method to assess the fetal genetic health. This testing is known as non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) and can detect chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome, and Patau syndrome, among others. Unlike amniocentesis, which involves drawing amniotic fluid and comes with a risk of miscarriage, NIPT poses no risk to the fetus since it requires only a blood sample from the mother. The presence of fetal DNA in maternal blood allows for this screening, and it is also useful in determining the Rh status of the fetus, thus helping in the management of potential Rh incompatibility.

Answer 2

DNA of these fetal cell can be extracted by identifying fetal cell in a normal blood test report of the mother

Step-by-step explanation:

In a normal blood test, the screening type is noninvasive which means that no external tools are used for deriving body cell.

So in such test, the blood is screened to look for the cell of the fetal from which the DNA of the baby can be extracted. This test is predominantly done after the 56 days of pregnancy. The genetic assessment of the fetal DNA is done to determine if he/she has any specific sort of genetic problem such as Down syndrome, etc. After this test is complete, the doctor can recommend for further in depth assessments such as amniocentesis