We describe an enzymatic method for measuring phosphatidylglycerol (PG) at concentrations as low as 0.2 mumol/L in amniotic fluid. Amniotic fluid (1.5 mL) is centrifuged at 10,000g for 20 min to obtain a lamellar body pellet, which is reconstituted with 0.5 mL of buffer. The PG is measured by a two-step enzymatic scheme. Recovery studies demonstrated that the pellet contains > 97% of the PG pre...

Our objective was to measure maternal plasma and amniotic fluid amino acid concentrations in pregnant women diagnosed as having fetuses with gastroschisis in the second trimester of pregnancy. Twenty-one pregnant women who had fetuses with gastroschisis detected by ultrasonography (gastroschisis group) in the second trimester and 32 women who had abnormal triple screenings indicating an increas...

Contamination of amniotic fluid samples with maternal or fetal red blood cells occurs in approximately 500 of amniocenteses. Culturing these samples for fetal chromosome analysis is often difficult, particularly when blood clots are present, because many of the amniotic fluid cells may become trapped within the clot. The combined use of trypsin to break up the clot and of ficoll-based lymphocyt...

This randomized controlled trial was done to assess whether endotracheal suctioning of nonvigorous infants born through meconium stained amniotic fluid (MSAF) reduces the risk and complications of meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS). Term, nonvigorous babies born through MSAF were randomized to endotracheal suction or no suction groups (n=61 in each). Risks of MAS, complications of MAS and endot...

Amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) associated with disseminated intravascular clotting (DIC) is usually fatal. Such a combination generally occurs at the term of pregnancy or in the immediate postpartum period. A case of AFE with DIC following a hypertonic-saline-induced abortion, is reported. The patient was in the midtrimester with a live fetus. Prompt recognition and treatment of her condition en...

A rapid (30-min) semiautomated continuous-flow procedure is described for use in assessing the phospholipids of the particulate ("lamellar body") fraction of human amniotic fluid. The method is based on measuring the difference in fluorescence of 1,6,-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene added to amniotic fluid before and after micropore filtration. The filtration step removes "lamellar body" particles, w...

Cryopreservation of mesenchymal stem cells from amniotic fluid is of clinical importance, as these cells can be harvested during the prenatal period and stored for use in treatments. We examined the behavior of mesenchymal stem cells from human amniotic fluid in culture that had been subjected to cryopreservation. We assessed chromosomal stability through karyotype analysis, determined whe...

INTRODUCTION Some studies of children with Down syndrome have found mild abnormalities in the metabolism of pyridoxine (vitamin B(6)); therefore the present question is whether such abnormalities might also be present in the amniotic fluid of fetuses with Down syndrome. MATERIALS AND METHODS Archived specimens of amniotic fluid were obtained from chromosomally normal and from fetuses with Dow...

© Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, Shanghai and Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 R.C. Zhao (ed.), Stem Cells: Basics and Clinical Translation, Translational Medicine Research 1, DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-7273-0_2 Abstract Application of amnion membrane with multiple bioactive biomaterial has over 100 years of history. Amnion membraneand amniotic fluid-derived stem cells mainly in...