10919 IUPAC Gold Book - maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein 10.1351/goldbook.10919 10919 current initialism: MSAFP 1 Protein made in the fetus that normally leaks, in small amounts, into the mother’s circulation. If there is an abnormal opening in the fetus, such as a neural tube defect, larger amounts appear in the mother’s serum, providing a screening test for such fetal anomalies. fetus https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/10718 neural tube defect https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/11004 PAC, 2016, 88, 713. 'Glossary of terms used in developmental and reproductive toxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2016)' on page 775 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-1202) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10919/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10919/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/10919/plain Citation: 'maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.10919 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-05-28T06:37:31+00:00