OBJECTIVE To determine amniotic fluid prostaglandin E2 concentrations in women preterm prelabor rupture of the membranes (PPROM) with respect to microbial invasion of the amniotic cavity (MIAC), intraamniotic inflammation (IAI), microbial-associated IAI, histological chorioamnionitis, and short-term neonatal morbidity. METHODS One hundred forty-five women with singleton pregnancies were inclu...

BACKGROUND Mesenchymal stromal cells are multipotent cells considered to be of great promise for use in regenerative medicine. However, the cell dose may be a critical factor in many clinical conditions and the yield resulting from the ex vivo expansion of mesenchymal stromal cells derived from bone marrow may be insufficient. Thus, alternative sources of mesenchymal stromal cells need to be ex...

Rapidly adhering cells (RA cells) from the amniotic fluid of a pregnancy with fetal anencephaly were investigated by immunofluorescence assay with an antiserum against glial cells. After 24 hours' cultivation a high proportion of the cells showed positive glial-specific fluorescence, whereas no staining was seen in cells from samples of normal amniotic fluid. At the 24th week the mother was del...

A bladder neck obstruction was suspected after ultrasound investigation at 16 weeks' gestation. Evaluation of protein content in the amniotic fluid, fetal ascites, and fluid from the overdistended bladder supported the diagnosis. Bladder outflow obstruction in the second trimester of pregnancy was not associated with raised alphafetoprotein levels in the amniotic fluid and maternal serum.

Vaginal colonization and symptomatic vaginitis involving Candida albicans is common during pregnancy (1,2); however, infection of the amniotic fluid in the presence of intact membranes is encountered rarely in obstetrical practice and mostly recognized retrospectively (3). C albicans is able to cross intact fetal membranes (4) and several case reports describe the isolation of the organism from...

A 39-year-old 34-week-pregnant woman was referred to our hospital for preterm labor and fetal dysfunction. Fetal middle cerebral artery systolic maximum blood flow velocity was high, so fetal anemia was suspected. Blood type was O-type Rh (+) and fetal hemoglobin was 0.4%; tests for irregular antibody and human parvovirus B19 IgM were negative. A high brightness echoic mass was observed in feta...

An inquiry into the biological meaning of the human amniotic fluid demands, first of all, a sufficient knowledge of its physical properties and chemical composition, information which many investigators have attempted to gain. Prochownick (1) studied the sodium chloride, solid substances, and urea in the amniotic fluid; Schroeder (2) determined the quantities of solid substances, ash, and album...

in plasma and showed that filterable GAPDH mRNA species are present, and therefore likely to be particle bound, whereas the majority of ␤-globin DNA is not filterable and thus is not particle bound. Our study analyzed cell-free nucleic acids in amniotic fluid for the presence of particle-associated mRNA species , and like Ng et al. (7), we found the greatest decrease in GAPDH mRNA after filtrat...

Allantoic and amniotic fluids were collected on Days 60 (n = 3), 100 (n = 4), and 140 (n = 3) of pregnancy. The presence of uterine milk proteins (UTM-proteins) in these samples was evaluated by Ouchterlony immunodiffusion and enzyme-linked immunoabsorbant assay (ELISA). Eight of ten samples of allantoic fluid and three of ten samples of amniotic fluid produced one or two immunoprecipitin bands...