Test raises hopes on birth defects

Cells to treat birth defects could be available from the amniotic fluid during pregnancy

Scientists say a common test in pregnancy may provide the basic material for tissue to treat some birth defects.

One in 5,000 babies is born with "body wall defects" such as a hole in the abdomen or chest.

If these birth defects can be diagnosed before birth, and this connective tissue cells can be grown, this could be very useful

Professor Anne McLaren, Royal Society

These can be corrected in surgery, but babies are often too small, and there is nowhere doctors can take tissue from.

The amniocentesis test analyses fluid taken from around the developing foetus at around 16 weeks to test for genetic disorders. But US research detailed in New Scientist magazine, suggests cells in the amniotic fluid can be grown into the necessary tissue.

One potential solution to provide tissue grafts has been to take cells from the foetus and grow tissue for use later on. But taking cells in this way can trigger a miscarriage.

Tissue growth

The US doctors, from the Children's Hospital in Boston, found early-stage embryonic cells in the amniotic fluid.

When these cells were grown around a kind of scaffold structure, they grew into basic connective tissue much faster than cells taken directly from a foetus.

The technique has already been used to repair body wall defects in lambs, and doctors are watching to see how they do.

We don't know if they are true stem cells, but they proliferate very quickly

Dr Dario Fauza
Dr Amir Kaviani

Dr Dario Fauza believes it would also be possible to use amniotic cells to treat a baby.

He and Dr Amir Kaviani told the American College of Surgeons meeting in New Orleans this week the amniotic fluid cells probably grew more quickly because they were younger.

They added: "We don't know if they are true stem cells, but they proliferate very quickly."

Dr Fauza said the technique was "elegant" because many women already had an amniocentesis.

Professor Anne McLaren, Principal Research Associate in the Wellcome CRC Institute, Cambridge, UK, and a fellow of the Royal Society said: "I'm delighted that this is a possibility that will be followed up."

She said the cells being created were not new stem cells, but could be used to create connective tissue for grafts.

She added: "If these birth defects can be diagnosed before birth, and this connective tissue cells can be grown, this could be very useful."