Preservation of fetal nucleic acids in maternal plasma

摘要

A prenatal non-invasive exploratory procedure for the identification of fetal characteristics, comprising the steps of: contacting a sample of extracted maternal blood, which includes a plurality of blood cells, with a nucleic acid protective agent, to prevent cells blood (i) release genomic nucleic acids to the blood sample and (ii) undergo a nuclease activity that degrades fetal nucleic acids; isolate fetal nucleic acids from the maternal blood sample; and analyzing isolated fetal nucleic acids to identify a fetal characteristic in which the protective agent includes glycine and imidazolidinyl urea, and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid in which the protective agent contains less than 1% by weight of formaldehyde.