Smelling of the mothers' diet in amniotic fluid by adult noses

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

In this study, the transfer of odorants, namely vanilla, and garlic, into the amniotic fluid (AF) during the second trimester was investigated by examination of collected AF samples through healthy adults. Eleven AF samples were collected from pregnant women (aged 32,9±4.9 years, 16 to 25 weeks of gestation) undergoing diagnostic amniocentesis after eating garlic oil or vanilla powder in high-fat yogurt. The control group did not receive food before amniocentesis. Two vanilla, three garlic and six control samples were collected through amniocentesis 60 to 120 minutes after ingestion. Samples were collected at -80°C and carefully defrosted over twelve hours at the same time point. Sixteen healthy volunteers (8 males, aged 26.5±5.0 years) were asked to judge AF samples with potential garlic or vanilla odors from controls in a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) paradigm. Judges were able to identify vanilla in the AF samples with an estimated probability of 50%, resulting in a significant p-value of <0.001. In contrast, the identification of garlic was unsuccessful with a p-value of 0.86, and only two judges were able to identify both vanilla and garlic. According to the results of this study, the vanilla odor probably passes into the amniotic fluid.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article numberbjae003
JournalChemical senses
Volume49
Early online date31 Jan 2024
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-7336-5815/work/152544651
ORCID /0009-0000-1194-0979/work/152545130
Mendeley 141a5d4e-4bef-3a84-8e30-7951d3a1ea55
Scopus 85185294044

Keywords

Keywords

  • Pregnancy, Amniocentesis, Amniotic Fluid, Diet, Humans, Adult, Female, Male, Mothers, Smell