Chorion in culture

This study is based on the processing of 115 samples of pure chorion. The different types of colony morphology, together with cytogenetic analysis, indicate the predisposition of chorion cells to artefacts of culture. Chorion survives longer than other foetal tissues and can be cultured when those are dead or contaminated (e.g. in macerated foetuses and missed abortions) making it a suitable and popular tissue for cytogenetic purposes. However, our results indicate that it is slow in culture and prone to chromosome variation so that pseudomosaicism frequently arises and may lead to misdiagnosis. We therefore suggest that cytogenetic analysis of spontaneous abortion material is interpreted with caution in cases where chorion is the only tissue cultured, especially when mosaicism is found.