Auxiliary samples of human AFCs obtained during routine amniocentesis were kindly donated by the clinical laboratory of Prof. Dr. Wegner/PD Dr. Stumm (Zentrum für Pränataldiagnostik, Kudamm-199, Berlin, Germany) after written informed consent.
Outcome measures: Radioimmunoassays of FT and FE obtained from routine amniocentesis; 2D:4D ratios calculated from 2nd and 4th digit length of the right and left hands at age 2 years.
AF was obtained from routine amniocentesis of women carrying normal fetuses (n = 17) and women carrying fetuses with CHDs (n = 16) (population details in Materials and Methods).
Passage 1 3 fibroblast cultures were established from surplus amniocentesis samples used in pre-natal diagnosis.
Primary human amniocytes are the only cell type that is readily available without ethical concerns: they can be collected by routine amniocentesis.
Human subject approval from the University of Michigan was obtained to use residual amniocentesis samples that were to be discarded.
12 13 Recent evidence supporting the EMB theory found sex steroid levels in amniocentesis samples to be correlated with the diagnosis of ASDs.
The country has collected and preserved every amniocentesis sample produced since 1980, along with other tissues.
Our goal was to determine whether the amniocentesis sampling technique influences the incidence of maternal cell contamination.
The primary amniocytes used here originated from a single amniocentesis sample.
