The Biology of Human Fetal Skin at Ages Related to Prenatal Diagnosis

It is the goal of the present article to review the state of knowledge of human skin development and to indicate some of the questions being approached in current studies of human fetal skin. Because of the breadth of the topic, the discussion will be limited to two ages during gestation that correspond to periods when samples of fetal skin or amniotic fluid cells (which in part are derived from the skin) are used to evaluate the condition of the fetus. These periods correspond to ages when amniocentesis (14-16 weeks) and fetoscopy accompanied by fetal skin biopsy (19-20 weeks) are performed.