[Rapid screening for MTHFR gene 677C>T polymorphism in Down syndrome using high resolution melting curve and pyrosequencing].

Objective To establish a rapid method for detecting MTHFR gene 677C ＞ T polymorphisms with high resolution melting curve method (HRM) and pyrosequencing.Methods Peripheral blood samples were collected from 155 Down syndrome patients and 182 normal controls from Children's Hospital of Shanghai.The accuracy of three methods including regular HRM,internal-control HRM and artificial heterozygosity HRM was compared.Meanwhile,allele frequencies in 10,30 and 50 mixed samples were measured with pyrosequencing,and the results were compared with that of HRM.Results Heterozygosity of 677C ＞ T polymorphism could be distinguished by various HRM methods.However,homozygotes CC and TT were only identifiable by internal-control HRM and artificial heterozygosity HRM.The accuracy of pyrosequencing for allele frequency has improved with increased sample number.When the number of mixed samples exceeded 30,the difference between pyrosequencing results and actual values became less than 4 ％.TT genotype was more frequent in Down syndrome patients than controls (25.2％ vs.14.3％).No significant difference was found in T allele frequency between the two groups (44.9％ vs.40.1％).Conclusion Respectively,internal-control HRM and pyrosequencing may be ideal methods for determination of genotype and allelic frequencies. Key words: High resolution melting curve; Pyrosequencing; Polymorphism; Rapid scanning; Down syndrome