A rapid culture-harvest protocol for amniotic cell cultures.

A rapid culture-harvest technique for amniotic fluid is presented using the poly-L-lysine technique (Rajendra et al. 1980). The procedure is simple, reproducible, and involves harvesting primary cultures five to eight days after culture. This technique is particularly useful as an adjunct to routine procedures, in advanced gestational age where preliminary chromosome counts are required to relieve anxiety, sex determination when sex linked traits are involved, and in situations where the cultures produce very small colonies that do not proliferate or respond to sub-cultures and thus are difficult to harvest.