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...

This study assessed whether the amniotic fluid index (AFI) or the single deepest pocket (SDP) is the best technique to estimate amniotic fluid volume. The AFI and SDP were compared to a dye-determined or directly measured amniotic fluid volume. A PUBMED search from 1990 to 2006 was conducted using the search terms "single deepest pocket" or "largest vertical pocket" or "maximum vertical pocket"...

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...

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...

CONTEXT Intra-amniotic infection (IAI) is commonly associated with preterm birth and adverse neonatal sequelae. Early diagnosis of IAI, however, has been hindered by insensitive or nonspecific tests. OBJECTIVE To identify unique protein signatures in rhesus monkeys with experimental IAI, a proteomics-based analysis of amniotic fluid was used to develop diagnostic biomarkers for subclinical IA...

Observations made on 31 amniotic fluid cell strains serially cultured until senescent are recorded. The cell strains had an average life in culture of 13-9 passages (range 3-29). The source of the amniotic fluid from which the cultures were initiated did not influence the behaviour of the cell strains. The behaviour ofthe cell strains was unrelated to the growth characteristics of the primary c...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of operator experience and ultrasound interpretation technique on the accuracy of ultrasound estimates of amniotic fluid volume. Ultrasound evaluation was carried out by an obstetric resident, a nurse sonographer, a maternal-fetal medicine fellow, and a maternal-fetal medicine staff member to subjectively estimate (visual interpretation wit...