A culture vessel for amniotic fluid cells allowing faster preparation of chromosome slides.

A new culture vessel for amniotic fluid culture is presented (flaskette). It consists of a microscope slide, on top of which a culture chamber is mounted. Amniotic fluid cell cultures using in situ technique in the flaskette were compared to subcultured samples in ordinary (Falcon) tissue culture bottles. Working time was reduced by using this new culture vessel because of a very simple harvest procedure, allowing simultaneous harvest of 15 samples. The interval between amniocentesis and harvest was shorter for the in situ technique than for the subcultivation technique. The frequency of aneuploidy in individual metaphases was higher with the subcultivation technique, while there was no difference in the frequency of structural anomalies.