Patient population and sample collection
Ethical approval for the study was received from the institutional ethics committee at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, Dublin, Ireland. Informed written consent for blood sampling was obtained in all cases and completed by a single investigator. The study population included the following groups:
Adult controls: 10 healthy women and 10 men aged 20-33 years. Peripheral venous blood (9 mL) was obtained by phlebotomy and collected in EDTA-coated vacutainers. UCB samples: 9 mL umbilical cord blood samples (n=10 males, n=10 females) collected in EDTA-coated vacutainers immediately following elective (no labour) Caesarean Section (CS) delivery from uncomplicated term (≥37+ 0 weeks) pregnancies. All elective CS were performed under spinal anaesthesia. All neonates had an uncomplicated postnatal course. Samples were kept on ice and processed within 90 minutes.