A swab test may soon predict babies’ premature birth using a signature found in the cheek cells of the baby’s mother and father. By replacing the need for early intervention measures, this trial could play an important role in preventing premature birth and its many health effects.
As Science Daily reports, in a study published in Scientific Reports, Washington State University researchers documented more than 100 epigenetic biomarkers in mothers of preterm infants that were different from mothers of infants carried for the entire duration of pregnancy. .
While the findings showed less biomarker distinction in the case of fathers, they were sufficient to indicate a paternal role in cases of preterm birth.
Preterm is defined as those babies who are born alive before the completion of 37th week of pregnancy.
Epigenetics is the molecular factors and processes surrounding DNA that determine the behavior patterns of a particular gene. Even modifications in epigenetics due to external factors such as toxic exposure, poor nutrition and alcohol use can be inherited to the next generation, independent of DNA sequence.
Michael Skinner, lead author of the study and a professor in Washington State University’s School of Biological Sciences, said the signature was present in every sample analyzed in the study, and could be used as the basis for developing a very useful test. Is. To predict premature birth. “This is likely to eventually lead to a very useful test. We used buccal cells, which are collected by a cheek swab. It is very non-invasive and easy to do,” he said.
For the study, researchers collected cheek swabs from two groups of the parent-infant triad shortly after the babies were born. While one group had 19 triplets where babies were born prematurely, the second group of 21 triads had babies that were carried for the entire duration of the pregnancy.
Epigenetic analysis of samples revealed signatures in mothers, fathers and female preterm infants, but none in male preterm infants. The findings suggest that preterm female babies carry more than 100 of these biomarkers from their parents, indicating that the tendency to have preterm babies may be passed on.
The transgenerational potential of a preterm pregnancy is also supported by the fact that the signature was found in cheek cells. Skinner argued that if an epigenetic modification was present in both the sperm and the ovum, the resulting child would have the modification present in every cell in their body, including the cheek cell.
The findings are only in the proof of concept stage of the study and more details may emerge if and when the study is conducted on a larger sample basis.
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