[A new conception of the physiology of amniotic circulation]

A histological study of the ovular membranes made by the authors showed that they represent an organ closely resembling the placenta and led them to believe that the metabolic processes that regulate the amniotic fluid occur in all the membranes and more especially in the region of the cytotrophoblast in the chorion that delimits the amniotic cavity. In the same way that the concept of a placental barrier has been abandoned in relation to the materno-fetal exchanges in the intervillous space, a concept that regarded the exchanges as simple diffusion across a theoretical membrane, the authors think that the concept of diffusion, simple transudation, across a little differentiated membrane such as the amnion must be abandoned in relation to the formation of the amniotic fluid. The placenta and the membranes form a whole in which the trophoblast plays a fundamental role in the feto-maternal exchanges in both the intervillous space and the amniotic cavity. This oneness makes possible an explanation of the physiopathology of both quantitive and qualitative regulatory disorders of the amniotic fluid.