We recently examined lymphocyte cultures from 24 children with laboratory-confirmed congenital rubella. Seventy percent of these children were under 1 year of age and thirty percent were virus excretors. The mean percentage of gaps plus breaks in children with congenital rubella was 11.2% versus 8.7% in age-matched controls.This was not statistically significant. The mitotic response to phytohemagglutinin was not depressed. The apparent discrepancies between these results and those of previous investigations are probably best explained by the broad spectrum of clinical severity in congenital rubella and the fact that a small, but variable, minority of fetal cells become infected in utero .
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