Development of free activin assay for the diagnosis and treatment of FIRS

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Chorioamnionitis is the primary disease of FIRS. Because the amnion is the avascular tissue, activin A produced in the amniotic cells is directly secreted into amniotic fluid, and seems to affect the fetus. Using cultured human amniotic cells with LPS or TNF-alpha, as a model system of amnionitis, we clarified that these factors stimulate activin A secretion from amniotic cells. A biologically active form of activin A is free activin A, which is not bound by the binding proteins follistatin or FSTL3. Therefore, we synthesized a peptide which has an amino acid sequence of follistatin/FSTL3-binding site of activin A, used it in immunization and obtained antibodies. The antibodies were purified by immunochromatography. Using the antibodies, we are analyzing the activin A secreted from amniotic cells by the stimulation of TNF-alpha.