Objective: This study was to explore the feasibility of detecting fetal genetic information in maternal peripheral blood cell and plasma. Methods: The specific fragment of SRY gene was amplified by nest-PCR in peripheral blood eukaryotic cells and plasma from 50 pregnancies. Then the PCR produces were identified by DNA sequence. Results: 28 boys and 22 girls were born from 50 pregnancies. SRY gene specific fragment was detected in maternal peripheral blood eukaryotic cell from 21 (75%) of the 28 pregnancies with male fetuses and in maternal plasma from 9 (35%) pregnancies with male fetuses. However

positive SRY signal in maternal blood eukaryotic cell was seen in only one of 22 pregnancies with female fetuses. Conclusion: Detecting fetal DNA from maternal peripheral blood could be a feasible and safe approach of non-invasive prenatal diagnosis. Our data demonstrate that it will be more effective to detect the fetal genetic information by combining analysis of eukaryotic cells and plasma from maternal peripheral blood.