ABSTRACT
This study was undertaken to investigate mother-to-infant transmission of human parvovirus B19 and the significance of prevalence of B19 virus in abnormal fetuses in Guandong. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR)was established to detect parvovirus B19 DNA in 700 sera from 350 maternal-infant pair groups. The prevalence of B19 virus DNA was 1.14％ (4/350)and 0.28％(1/350)in the sera of pregnant women and cord blood of their neonates respectively. Parvovirus B19 DNA sequences were also detected in abnormal fetuses and new-born by PCR. The positive results were obtained in 5 samples of fetal tissues from 17 abnormal fetuses and in 3 those of neonatal tissues from 7 cases of neonatal death. The amplified products of PCR were identified to be the target DNA with Hae Ⅲ digestion. By in situ hybridization ,parvovirus DNA could be detected mainly in the nuclei of immature hematopoetic cells within fetal brain or spleen whose PCR tests were positive. The study results suggest that human parvovirus B19 infection does exist in maternal-infant transmission in Guangdong and might lead to harm on fetuses,but the prevalence rate of B19 virus may be very low. The evaluation of B19 virus infection might depend on reliable assay to determine present infection or past infection.