FETAL TISSUE COLLECTION FROM SPONTANEOUS-ABORTIONS - A REPORT FROM A SINGLE-CENTER

Due to immunological immaturity, the fetus is the ideal recipient as w ell as donor of haemopoietic stem cells (HSCs); thus intrauterine ther apy may prove to be effective in all major haemopoietic disorders when early prenatal diagnosis is available. In man, 'fetus-to-fetus' trans plantation has demonstrated the possibility of grafting donor HSCs and reconstituting immunodeficient fetuses. The limitations of fetal tiss ue use for transplantation derive from the origin of tissues from elec tive abortions. Early and late live spontaneous abortions may constitu te an alternative to elective abortions, but are widely considered as unsuitable for fetal tissue collection because of rapid loss of viabil ity and/or infections. The aim of this retrospective study was to asse ss the number of live abortions in a population of women who underwent spontaneous abortion in a single centre. In a 19-month period, 9 spon taneous abortions alive at the moment of delivery and 8 with a heart b eat at the last ultrasound scan before abortion were recorded. In 1 ca se, fetal liver (EL) harvesting was easily performed and the tissue wa s cryopreserved, subsequently thawed and injected into a monkey fetus. This case shows the feasibility of this approach. The majority of cas es reviewed consisted of late abortions. These findings clearly show t hat fetal tissue collection from spontaneous abortions is feasible for research purposes, for postnatal FL transplantation and for intrauter ine transplantation, provided that depletion of more mature cells is p erformed when FL of later gestational age are used. The number of fetu ses collected could be further augmented provided that a multicentre n etwork for fetal tissue collection is established.