BACKGROUND/PURPOSE The rationale for in utero repair of myelomeningocele has been supported experimentally by the observation of preserved neural function after prenatal closure of surgically created defects compared with nonrepaired controls. The mechanism of injury to the exposed neural elements is unknown. Postulated mechanisms include trauma to the herniated neural elements or progressive i...

Little is known about the origin of albumin in amniotic fluid. A fetal origin is questionable, because of the low concentration of protein in fetal urine and lung fluid. A maternal origin of proteins in amniotic fluid was already proposed in the 1970s. This review focuses on the possible sources of albumin in amniotic fluid and on the pathways for albumin to enter and leave the amniotic fluid i...

although amniotic fluid embolism is a rare event, but it is a tragic event. this kind of embolism occurs in 1 per 20,000 to 30,000 births with 86% maternal mortality rate in the united states. amniotic fluid embolism is in charge of near 10-15% of all maternal deaths. this article reflects the experiences of a nurse midwife encountered with a maternal and neonatal death due to an amniotic fluid...

Stem cells isolated from amniotic fluid are known to be able to differentiate into different cells types, thus being considered as a powerful tool for cellular therapy of different human diseases. In the last 4 years, amniotic fluid-derived stem (AFS) cells have been shown to express embryonic and adult stem cell markers. These cells can be considered an intermediate stage between embryonic ste...

CD4-positive cells are detectable in the human fetal gastrointestinal tract from 11 weeks of gestation. Interleukin-16 (IL-16) is a chemoattractant for CD4(+) cells and, via fetal swallowing of amniotic fluid, could mediate the influx of CD4(+) cells into the fetal gut. We have shown that IL-16 was detectable in human amniotic fluid at 16-18 weeks of gestation (mid-pregnancy) but was not detect...

OBJECTIVE Cholesterol is crucial for fetal development. To gain more insight into the origin of the fetal cholesterol pool in early human pregnancy, we determined cholesterol and its precursors in the amniotic fluid of uncomplicated, singleton human pregnancies. STUDY DESIGN Total sterols were characterized by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in the second-trimester amniotic fluid of 126 ...

of the known mycotoxins, the most important in relation to direct hazard to human health are the aflatoxins produced by a large number of aspergillus spp. to determine the level of exposure of aflatoxin from mother to child and its mode of transfer. 70 pregnant women in the labor ward of the federal medical centre yola were investigated for their aflatoxin content by using the velasco fluorotox...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that unconjugated bilirubin is equally distributed over the albumin molecules present in fetal blood and amniotic fluid in Rhesus (Rh) immunization. METHODS Molar concentrations of unconjugated bilirubin and albumin were measured in fetal blood and amniotic fluid samples, obtained before the first intrauterine transfusion in 30 nonhydropic, anti-D-alloimmunize...

INTRODUCTION Amniotic fluid is an important factor in the prediction of fetal survival. The aim of this research was to evaluate the effects of intravenous hydration of mothers on amniotic fluid volume and in turn on pregnancy outcomes. METHODS The current single blind controlled clinical trial was conducted on 20 pregnant mothers with amniotic fluid index of lower or equal to 5 cm and gestat...

© 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...