Abstract
IRWIN A. SCHAFER (Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio): Dr. TAKEUCHI in our laboratory has been working with amniotic fluid. She has analyzed a much smaller number of normal controls, but can confirm your results with one minor exception. We find in normal amniotic fluid a small amount of heparitin sulfate. I think chemically the material that we get off the column is not as yet as well characterized as some of the material with which you have worked.
We have also been able to confirm—probably the same specimen that you analyzed—the difference in distribution of acid mucopolysaccharides in the Hurler amniotic fluid.
There is only one problem that is still a little bother-some to us, and that is the question of expressing the results in terms of volume, since I am not quite sure whether there might be differences in concentration, water content, of amniotic fluid which might artifactually influence the results.
Dr. MATALON: I have discussed this problem previously with you, Dr. SCHAFER, and I agree with you that one might add more criteria for expressing these data.
I would like to stress again that in the Hurler amniotic fluid the problem is not a problem of concentration only, but it is again a problem of total different distribution. In none of the amniotic fluids did we find any suggestion of this amount of heparitin sulfate; as you will recall, normal amniotic fluids have almost 80% of their polysaccharide as hyaluronic acid.
The second thing you mentioned is that you detected some heparitin sulfate. We did the same thing you mentioned, and found a reactive substance in all the amniotic fluids; however, this substance was not true heparitin sulfate, because it gave reaction in the zero time, which heparitin sulfate does not.
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Matalon, R., Jacobson, C., Dorfman, A. et al. Prenatal Diagnosis of the Mucopolysaccharidoses by a Chemical Method. Pediatr Res 4, 511–512 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197011000-00006
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197011000-00006