In the cards: Van Andel Institute's James Resau shows blood-stained records studied by researchers as he discusses the testing method used in December 2008..A new testing method developed by Van Andel Research Institute researchers triples the amount of genetic information that can be obtained from dried spots of newborn blood preserved by the state Department of Community Health.
The archived newborn blood, which comes from a poke in the heel a day or two after birth, can be used to study public health issues, research the causes of disease and ultimately could lead to prevention and early detection of illness, officials said today.
In a recent study published in Pathology International, researchers detected about 9,000 activated genes in blood spots that were six months to three years old. That's three times as many as they were able to detect when they first attempted to get genetic information from blood spots in 2008.
The new testing method provides access to a valuable resource, said Dr. Jim Resau, distinguished scientific investigator at VARI.
“It opens doors to examine risk factors and potentially diagnose diseases before the clinical features are present," he said. "One such disease might be cerebral palsy, which currently can’t be diagnosed until a child is nearly 2. The information could also be used to study pediatric cancers such as neuroblastoma, which is known to be present at birth in many cases.”
The testing was done as part of a study conducted with Dr. Nigel Paneth, a professor at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.
The test looks for the presence of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), which signals which genes are active. Messenger RNA is "not gene structure, it's gene function," Paneth said.
Seeing which genes were activated at the time the blood was drawn gives clues to what was happening before and during birth. Researchers can use that information to look into causes and, ultimately, prevention for various diseases, he said.
Because the state archives blood spots for more than 20 years, the next step is to test samples from various periods, researchers said.
E-mail Sue Thoms: sthoms@grpress.com