Maternal blood contamination of collected cord blood can be identified using DNA methylation at three CpGs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Cord blood is a commonly used tissue in environmental, genetic, and epigenetic population studies due to its ready availability and potential to inform on a sensitive period of human development. However, the introduction of maternal blood during labor or cross-contamination during sample collection may complicate downstream analyses. After discovering maternal contamination of cord blood in a cohort study of 150 neonates using Illumina 450K DNA methylation (DNAm) data, we used a combination of linear regression and random forest machine learning to create a DNAm-based screening method. We identified a panel of DNAm sites that could discriminate between contaminated and non-contaminated samples, then designed pyrosequencing assays to pre-screen DNA prior to being assayed

SUBMITTER: Morin AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5526324 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature