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Objective In this study, we expanded conventional cell-free fetal DNA (cfDNA)-based non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) to cover the entire genome. We aimed to compare the performance of the two tests in a large general population of pregnant women, in order to assess the clinical utility of the genome-wide screening. Method Genome-wide cfDNA analysis was offered to 12 114 pregnant women undergoing NIPT for common fetal aneuploidy. Sequencing data were analyzed using an algorithm optimized to identify aneuploidies and subchromosomal aberrations. Results Genome-wide screening allowed detection of 12 (7.4%) potentially viable clinically relevant chromosomal abnormalities, which would have remained overlooked if only conventional NIPT had been performed. This resulted in a statistically significant higher sensitivity (100% vs 92.64%, p

Objective Several non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) methods, which analyze circulating fetal cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in maternal plasma, suggest a fetal fraction (FF) ≥4% for a reportable result, with the assumption that fetal aneuploidies may not be detectable at lower FF. This study determined the actual limit of detection (LOD) of a massively parallel sequencing-based NIPT method and evaluated its performance in testing samples with low FF. Method An experimental model, involving the creation of artificial plasma mixtures with a final aneuploid FF ranging from 1% to 4%, simulated samples at different proportions of fetal cfDNA. We then analyzed 7103 blood samples, from pregnant women undergoing NIPT, to assess the impact of low FF on the performance of cfDNA testing. Results Detection of common aneuploidies in samples with an FF as low as 2% is well within the ability of this technology. Of 105 pregnancies confirmed chromosomally abnormal, 25 (23.8%) involving a 2%

p63, a member of the p53 family, is a crucial transcription factor for epithelial development and skin homeostasis. Heterozygous mutations in TP63 gene have been associated with human ectodermal dysplasia disorders. Most of these TP63 mutations are missense mutations causing amino acidic substitutions at p63 DNA binding or SAM domains that reduce or abolish the transcriptional activity of mutants p63. A significant number of mutants, however, resides in part of the p63 protein that apparently do not affect DNA binding and/or transcriptional activity, such as the N-terminal domain. Here, we characterize five p63 mutations at the 5' end of TP63 gene aiming to understand the pathogenesis of the diseases and to uncover the role of ΔNp63α N-terminus residues in determining its transactivation potential.