Antenatal diagnosis of inborn errors of metabolism: tissue culture aspects

Behaviour of cell cultures from human amniotic fluid

The growth pattern of cell cultures originating from 11 amniotic fluid specimens have been observed. From each specimen 2 to 12 primary cultures were set up. In most cases growth started simultaneously in the primary cultures originating from one sample. The primary cultures lasted from 7 to 30 days. A variation was found both between cultures from different pregnancies as well as among cultures obtained from single amniotic fluids. The growth period from setting up the cultures until harvest of the cell lines for biochemical analysis ranged from 20 to 54 days. No connexion was noticed between the time spent in primary culture and the behaviour of the cell line before harvest. The effects of two types of serum (fetal calf serum and pooled human serum) on the behaviour of the cultures were compared. The cells grown in human serum were harvested a few days before those grown in fetal calf serum. The influence of different batches of medium was also examined; no significant effect of the growth pattern was found. The appearance of epithelial-like and fibroblast-like cells in cultures from 6 specimens was observed concurrently. At the time of harvest the cell lines originating from the same amniotic specimen contained the cell types in different proportions.

Observations on human amniotic fluid cell strains in serial culture

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 of the cell strains was unrelated to the growth characteristics of the primary cultures from which they were derived. Cell strains derived from serial samples of amniotic fluid from three women were compared and their characteristics were no more related to each other than to the group as a whole. The cell types found in amniotic fluid cultures are described. The karyology of 12 of the cell strains was monitored and no significant changes from normal diploidy were seen. Possible reasons for the highly variable and unpredictable behaviour of amniotic fluid cell strains are discussed.