Abstract
Fourteen human fetuses of 14 to 28 months of gestat. age have been collected immediately after spontaneous abortion. Blood, liver and all the endocrine glands were carefully removed and studied. Hormonal secretion was evaluated for pituitary gland by explant cultures and immuno-reactive HCH production referred to the weight of the gland.
Blood serie samples stored at -40° were estimated for SMA activity according two procedures: i.e. K. HALL's bioassay on chick embryo pelvis cartilage, and MARSHALL's radioreceptor assay on human placental membranes. Valuable results are attained for 9 fetuses and showed a positive correlation to the gestational age weight and size of the fetus. R.R.A. values seemed to be significantly higher than that from bioassay.
Increase of fetal SMA values during antenatal development seemed grossly parallelic to pituitary GH production.
Currently used bioassay techniques are not sufficiently accurate to evaluate the relationship between fetal hormonal production of hGH, insulin, somatomedin (s) and liver function.
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Pierson, M., Nabet, P., Malaprade, D. et al. Somatomedin activity in the human fetus. Pediatr Res 13, 1192 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197910000-00074
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197910000-00074