Abstract
1 Institut Nationale de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U.43
and2 Laboratoire de Cytogénétique Hôpital Saint Vincent-de-Paul 74, avenue Denfert-Rochereau, 75014 Paris, France
Almost all the samples of amniotic fluid from 62 pregnant women from the 16th week to the end of the pregnancy contained detectable amounts of α-type interferon. The presence of this substance in amniotic fluid during pregnancy raises the question of the physiological significance of this finding. It is postulated that the amniotic type of α-interferon might be a product of a constitutive gene, rather than induced by latent virus infection.