Amniotic fluid cells have been widely used in prenatal diagnosis; however, there is great heterogeneity of the cells and their origin. In this study we analyze the karyotype and release of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), human chorionic somatomammotropin (hCS), free estriol (E 3), prolactin (PRL) and progesterone (P) of amniotic fluid cells from primary cultures of six normal and two anence...

CONTEXT No molecular biological tests are available to monitor the ongoing development of human fetuses in vivo. OBJECTIVE To determine whether cell-free fetal messenger RNA (mRNA) in amniotic fluid can be detected using oligonucleotide microarrays to study large-scale gene expression in living human fetuses, with analysis of sex, gestational age, and fetal pathology as variables. DESIGN, S...

AIM To investigate the ability of human amniotic fluid stem cells and human dental pulp stem cells to differentiate into insulin-producing cells. METHODS Human amniotic fluid stem cells and human dental pulp stem cells were induced to differentiate into pancreatic β-cells by a multistep protocol. Islet-like structures were assessed in differentiated human amniotic fluid stem cells and human d...

BACKGROUND It is the hope of investigators and patients alike that in future the isolation of pluripotent human stem cells will allow the establishment of therapeutic concepts for a wide variety of diseases. A major aim in this respect is the identification of new sources for pluripotent stem cells. Oct-4 is a marker for pluripotent human stem cells so far known to be expressed in embryonal car...

Human fibronectin was isolated from second-trimester amniotic fluid, from amniotic fluid obtained at term and from adult plasma. The amniotic-fluid fibronectins had a slightly higher apparent molecular weight on sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis than the plasma fibronectin. Early- and late-amniotic-fluid fibronectin had 9.5 and 9.6% carbohydrate respectively, whereas pl...

The discovery of human amniotic fluid stem cells initiated a new and promising stem cell research field. These cells harbor a high proliferative capacity and the potential to differentiate into cells of all three embryonic germ layers. The facts that they do not form tumors in vivo and do not raise the ethical concerns associated with human embryonic stem cells support their role as an optimal ...

Very high concentrations of prorenin protein occur in human amniotic fluid and amnion. The source of amniotic fluid prorenin is likely the decidua, as it has the highest levels of prorenin mRNA (REN). Conversely, REN mRNA levels in amnion and chorion are very low. This study aimed to investigate whether decidual prorenin could cross the amnion and accumulate in amniotic fluid. Late gestation am...

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...

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...