Maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein

Introduction

brief outline on what will be covered

Background information

what is maternal alpha fetoprotein testing, is it invasive or non-invasive?

What is Alpha fetoprotein

type of protein, structure, function, how and where is it made.

Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) is an embryo specific glycoprotein which is produced during the early stages of development by the liver, yolk sac as well as a small amount being produced by the gastrointestinal tract. AFP in adults is functionless as levels decrease drastically after birth with very low traces of AFP found in the average older adult with the only women experiencing spikes occurring in AFP levels during the onset of pregnancy and it is in fact through the testing of the blood of pregnant women, that AFP levels can be measured. The function of AFP itself is unknown but due to its similarity to albumin it has been hypothesized that AFP could be a carrier protein or may even play a role in the metabolism of bilirubin. Furthermore, it has been observed that it does play a role in the embryonic and early fetal stages of development as fluctuating levels of AFP indicate the presence of abnormalities within a fetus.

AFP has a molecular weight of around 70,000 daltons and is a single chain alpha globulin that has 590 amino acids and is estimated to have a 5% make up of carbohydrate content. It should be noted that it has an uncanny resemblance to another protein called albumin. The AFP level in human fetal serum is highest during the 13th week of gestation, where it may reach the level of several mg per ml, and accounts for almost a third of the total serum protein. Normal human serum also contains traces of AFP, however fetal AFP level is almost one million times higher than the adult level.

AFP in Pregnancy

Highest maternal AFP concentration occurs in the mid third trimester of the pregnancy where the mean level is 150-250ng/ml. The concentration of AFP in maternal serum at any moment of gestation development seems to be related to the AFP level in the fetal circulation as well as in the placental size.

Instances of abnormal AFP values (too high as well as too low) can partly been explained by physiological deviations from the expected normal pregnancy eg. in cases of under- or overestimated gestational age and multiple pregnancies. In other instances it have been found to indicate the presence of various fetal morphogenetic defects, such as open NTD (neural tube defect), hereditary congenital nephrosis (Finnish type), omphalocele, pilonidal sinus, esophageal atresia, and others.

The maternal AFP level has often reported to be increased in pregnancies where the fetus has a neural tube defect.

The Optimal practical time for detecting open spinabifida by measuring materal serum AFP is at 16-18 comepleted weeks of pregnancy. In Wald et el. (1977)’s sample of patients, 88% of cases of anencephaly, 79% of cases of open spina bifida, and 3% of unaffected singleton pregnancies had maternal serum AFP levels equal to or greater than 2.5 times the normal median. Because there is a certain degree of overlapping between the maternal AFP levels in pregnancies with and without fetal NTD, the AFP estimation in materal serum cannot per se serve as a specific diagnostic test, but it seems to be a useful screening test so as to select certain symptom-free women for further diagnostic procedures such as ultrasonography, amniocentesis, and amniography.

purpose

what disorders does this test detect, information on these disorders

Accuracy

accuracy of the test, compare the test accuracy to other tests, statistcal information.

conclusion

--Mark Hill 01:43, 5 August 2010 (UTC) You can now put your group discussion here. Here is the code to set up a search of PubMed Books - Prenatal Diagnosis and to Search Pubmed Now - Prenatal Diagnosis

References

Wald N.J., Cuckle H, Brock J.H., Peto R, Polani P.E., Woodford F.P. (1977). Report of the UK Collaborative Study on Alpha-Fetoprotein in Relation to Neural-Tube Defects: Maternal serum-alphafetoprotein measurement in antenatal screening for anencephaly and spina bifida in early pregnancy. Lancet, 1, 1323

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Cite this page: Hill, M.A. (2024, April 16) Embryology 2010 Group Project 6. Retrieved from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/2010_Group_Project_6

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