The changes in CAP activity in first trimester placental chorionic villi and maternal serum, and their clinical significance.

We investigated the CAP activity of placental chorionic villi and maternal serum in the first trimester using a new ultramicro fluorometric method and obtained the following results: The CAP activity of the lysosome fraction (C3) was the greatest of the first trimester villi fractions (6.8 +/- 1.5n mol AMC/min/mg protein). No changes in CAP activity were seen in each fraction for the same wet weights of chorionic villi obtained during the different trimesters. The peak volumes (found with Sephadex G200) of the first trimester chorionic villi C3 fraction and the first trimester maternal serum almost coincided. CAP activity in normal healthy pregnant women in the 5th to 13th weeks of gestation rose gradually as pregnancy advanced. Maternal serum CAP activity was found to be lower than normal when abortion was imminent, but in cases in which the prognosis was favorable, the clinical signs, such as genital bleeding and lower abdominal pain, vanished and the values returned to within the normal range. However, when the prognosis was poor, the clinical signs did not improve and the values remained below normal. These findings suggest that first trimester CAP is produced by the lysosome fraction (C3) of the chorionic villi and that its activity in the maternal serum is directly related to placental function.

Plasma diamine oxidase levels in pregnancy complicated by threatened abortion.

Plasma diamine oxidase levels were assayed in 66 patients who presented with pregnancy complicated by threatened abortion. Levels within the normal range were associated with continuing pregnancies, whereas levels below the normal range were associated with subsequent abortion. Among those patients in whom gestation was greater than eight weeks, 66.6% of diamine oxidase levels correctly predicted the pregnancy outcome. Assay of the diamine oxidase levels at eight weeks of gestation or less gave little useful information.

[Activity of various serum enzymes during normal and complicated early pregnancy]. / Aktivität einiger Enzyme im Blutserum im Verlauf der normalen und komplizierten Frühschwangerschaft.

It was concluded, that the enzymatic control of the development of early pregnancy [equal to of normal course] by the estimation of the activity of GOT, GPT, Ald, ChE, alpha-HBDH and CPK in plasma has no clinical significance. However the different activity of some enzymes in abortion and early gestosis confirm the practical value of these estimations. The obtained results were discussed.