Use of an Automated Method Improves the Yield and Quality of Cell-Free Fetal DNA Extracted from Maternal Plasma

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Abstract
After approval was granted from the Cantonal Institutional Review Board of Basel, we obtained 9 plasma samples from women carrying male fetuses (first to third trimester) to test the methods of DNA extraction. Identical samples were used for both methods, and the plasma was prepared according to our standard protocol and stored at −70 °C (4)(5). For the manual extraction method, cell-free DNA was extracted from 400 μL of plasma according to the manufacturer’s instructions and eluted with 100 μL of elution buffer. For the automated method, DNA was extracted from 1000 μL of plasma by the Roche MagNA Pure LC DNA Isolation Kit–Large Volume and eluted with 200 μL of elution buffer. On the following day, we processed a second identical set of samples, using the same procedures as described above, which gave a total of 18 samples tested per method.