Adaptation of PCR technique for quantitative estimation of genetic material from different regions of chromosome 21 in cases of trisomy 21.

Pre- and postnatal diagnosis of chromosomal aberrations is generally based on conventional cytogenetic analysis. In this paper, we have devised a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) method to determine gene dose effects and applied it in cases of regular trisomy 21 as a model. The method is based on quantitative assessment of PCR products after using primers amplifying DNA fragments located in the pericentromeric, heterochromatic, euchromatic and telomeric regions of chromosome 21.