Amniotic fluid lipids in sickle cell disease.

Amniotic fluid of sickle cell disease patients past the thirty-seventh week of pregnancy contained 63.4%, 71.7%, and 48.6% less total lipids, total nonpolar lipids, and total phospholipids, respectively, as compared with amniotic fluid of normal patients. No remarkable variation in the composition of nonpolar lipids was noticed between the two groups. However, the phospholipid composition was significantly varied. For example, the percentage amounts of choline glycerophospholipids (lecithin) was low and the percentage amounts of other phospholipids was high in sickle cell pregnancy as compared with normal pregnancy. Furthermore, increased levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids and fluorescent lipid pigments were found in amniotic fluids of sickle cell patients.