Karyotype - an analysis that will reveal the secrets of heredity

Today often in fiction or detective films often detectives are found by the detectives to find the true culprit of the crime by research on the karyotype - an analysis that allows studying human DNA and comparing it, if necessary, with control samples. Undoubtedly, genetic studies began to be widely introduced into medical practice with the creation of appropriate equipment, research techniques and the emergence of a generation of specialists able to work with this equipment.

Studies on karyotype - an important method of genetic diagnosis

Study karyotype in medical practice is one of the stages of medical genetic counseling. The very principle of research is based on the fact that in the cells of any living organism the composition of chromosomes, carriers of genetic information, remains unchanged throughout life. Every living being, regardless of the species, receives from his parents half of the chromosome set, which is connected at the time of fertilization - from this moment the development of a new organism begins. The number of chromosomes and their characteristics remain unchanged throughout life. Actually, that's why every person has to carry out a study on karyotype only once in a lifetime.

The analysis can be performed with the cells of any human organ - the composition of the chromosomes remains unchanged regardless of the tissue and method of sampling. This research is in demand in medicine, where such a modern diagnostic method is used to identify possible genetic diseases both in the patient himself and his relatives. This analysis has found application in criminalistics, where the karyotype of cells is used in various examinations and forensic medicine.

How the study is conducted

It is necessary to know that if necessary, research can be performed on any cells of the human body, and in some cases even dead cells (hair, nails, epidermis). But the speed of obtaining the result depends on how intensively the cells of this or that tissue of the human body are divided. After all, only with the nuclei of frequently dividing cells can a rapid test for karyotype. Analysis, even with a favorable combination of circumstances, will take some time - at best, the full result of the study can be obtained in hands in 25-30 days. In forensic practice, rapid tests can be used - they require less time, but their result requires additional testing in the normal mode.

During the research, the sample of the material is cultivated under laboratory conditions. Cultivation of cell culture is carried out on special nutrient media and only under laboratory conditions. Most often for research, blood is taken - capillary (very rarely) or venous, less often - scraping from the mucous membrane of the oral cavity. The analysis of blood on karyotype in modern medical practice is most often used in medical and genetic counseling. This method of obtaining the material helps to obtain a sufficient number of cells (most often leukocytes) that will be grown in the laboratory, fixed, stained with special dyes and examined.

When karyotype analysis is important

It often turns out that chromosome changes in the cells of one of the potential parents are to blame for the infertility of the couple; therefore, when infertility or the habitual miscarriage of pregnancy, a karyotype is investigated. The analysis is usually prescribed in a complex of instrumental and laboratory studies, but it needs to be done only in the direction of the doctor, after the examination and routine tests.

This analysis is also necessary in the detection of hereditary pathology, especially transmitted by autosomal recessive type (the disease occurs only when the two pathological genes "meet"). Today, this study can be assigned to both the newborn child and the person throughout his later life, and the fetus - during the invasive diagnosis. In this case, the material for analysis becomes the amniotic fluid, the placenta or chorionic particles.