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This is Anthony
Atala from the Wake Forest Institute
for Regenerative Medicine in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
And I will be discussing the
topic of stem cells derived
from amniotic fluid and placenta.
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The amniotic fluid is the fluid
that surrounds the developing embryo
and fetus, and the placenta
is a tissue that surrounds
both the developing embryo and
fetus as well as the fluid.
Interestingly, both of these
sources, the fluid and the tissue,
are present all the way until the
time that the baby is delivered.
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Both the amniotic
fluid and the placenta
can be obtained any time
after a certain period,
during gestation, all
the way through term.
Amniocentesis is a procedure
where amniotic fluid gets obtained
anywhere between 14 weeks of
gestation all the way through term.
And that is where we
obtain the amniotic fluid.
Chorionic villus sampling is
a procedure where we obtain
a small piece of a placenta any
time between 12 weeks through term.
Both techniques are widely accepted
methods for the prenatal diagnosis
of the fetus or the
embryo, and it can
be done all the way
through the time of birth.
It is well known that both
amniotic fluid and the placenta
are full of the
developing fetus cells.
However, what we postulated about
10 years ago, whether these sources
could in fact be a possible
source for stem cells.
