Dietary content during pregnancy is important because it is necessary for the growth of the fetus. With the assumption that the nutritional status of the fetus can be monitored by measuring amino acid concentrations in the amniotic fluid, we investigated whether the habitual dietary intake of pregnant women affected the composition of the amniotic fluid and the significance of performing amniotic fluid analysis. The subjects were 34 mothers who delivered full-term babies by cesarean section. Three biological samples were collected from the mothers: blood, cord blood, and amniotic fluid. At the same time, the mothers' prenatal nutritional intake information was also recorded. When the amino acid contents of the samples were compared with the mothers' nutrient intake, many amino acids in the amniotic fluid were positively correlated with lipid intake, but not with protein intake. There was a negative correlation between lipid intake and carbohydrate intake, and the amino acid contents of the amniotic fluid were also negatively correlated with carbohydrate intake. The results of this study were consistent with those found in animal models, suggesting that the analysis of amniotic fluid may be a useful method to investigate the effects of habitual diet during human pregnancy on the fetus.
Keywords: amino acids; amniotic fluid; fetal nutrition; maternal diet.