Pancreatic phospholipase A2 (PPLA2) during human pregnancy.

Pancreatic phospholipase A2 in human serum during pregnancy is within the normal range. In the amniotic fluid, the amount of immunoreactive pancreatic phospholipase A2 increases from 1.3 microgram/l at 16 weeks to 2.9 micrograms/l near term, but does not correlate with PLA2-activity. Meconium-stained amniotic fluid had highly elevated pancreatic, but not kinetic, PLA2. The fetal pancreas and its high PLA2-content may contribute to the progressive increase in uterine activity during human pregnancy.