Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 20, 2026

Ex vivo Culture of Human Placental Explants for the Study of Viral Transmission Across the Maternal-Fetal Interface
Published on: December 30, 2025
Phylogenetically diverse TT virus viremia among pregnant women
Davit Bzhalava1, Johanna Ekström, Fredrik Lysholm
1Depts. of Laboratory Medicine, Medical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract:
Infections during pregnancy have been suggested to be involved in childhood leukemias. We used high-throughput sequencing to describe the viruses most readily detectable in serum samples of pregnant women. Serum DNA of 112 mothers to leukemic children was amplified using whole genome amplification. Sequencing identified one TT virus (TTV) isolate belonging to a known type and two putatively new TTVs. For 22 mothers, we also performed TTV amplification by general primer PCR before sequencing. This detected 39 TTVs, two of which were identical to the TTVs found after whole genome amplification. Altogether, we found 40 TTV isolates, 29 of which were putatively new types (similarities ranging from 89% to 69%). In conclusion, high throughput sequencing is useful to describe the known or unknown viruses that are present in serum samples of pregnant women.
Related Concept Videos
Human Virome
Cytomegalovirus Disease
Viral Hepatitis I: Introduction
Viral Recombination
Viral Mutations
Retrovirus Life Cycles

