Rat embryos explanted with their membranes at head-fold stage (9 1/2 days gestation) formed an allantoic placenta which enlarged in culture and developed a foetal blood circulation. Embryos explanted at early somite stages (10 1/2 days) also formed a growing allantoic placenta but only after removal of most of the ectoplacental trophoblast. Assays of total protein in the embryo and placenta sug...

PROBLEM Inflammation during pregnancy has devastating consequences for the placenta and fetus. These events are incompletely understood, thereby hampering screening and treatment. METHOD OF STUDY The inflammatory profile of villous tissue was studied in pregnancies at high-risk of placental dysfunction and compared to uncomplicated pregnancies. The systemic inflammatory profile was assessed i...

Uterine and umbilical uptakes of alanine (Ala) were measured in 10 ewes before (control) and during intravenous infusion of Ala, which increased maternal arterial Ala concentration from 115 ± 14 to 629 ± 78 μM ( P < 0.001). In 8 of these ewes, placental Ala fluxes were traced by constant intravenous infusion ofl-[3,3,3-2H3]Ala in the mother andl-[1-13C]Ala in the fetus. Rates are reported as mi...

The placental adhesive disorders such as placenta accreta and placenta percreta are the rare causes of serious obstetric hemorrhages. They are associated with high maternal morbidity and mortality. Placenta percreta is usually diagnosed in the third trimester of pregnancy as a massive postpartum hemorrhage when an attempt to remove the placenta reveals lack of a cleavage plane. Here we report a...

OBJECTIVE In previous studies it has been emphasized that the site of morphine action may be either in the embryo or the placenta. In the present study, we attempt to identify the site of morphine action on the fetal section of Wistar rat placenta by using C(14)-morphine. MATERIALS AND METHODS IN THIS STUDY (EXPERIMENTAL), FEMALE WISTAR RATS (WEIGHTS: 170-200 g) were mated with male rats and ...

Delivery of an optimally grown, viable infant defines a successful pregnancy. Optimal growth is achieved by the interaction of maternal, placental, and fetal systems to deliver maternal nutrients to the placenta, transfer them to the fetus, and maximize their utilization for fetal growth. Pregnancy is characterized by profound changes in thematernal immune,metabolic, cardiovascular, and renal s...

OBJECTIVES The placental transfer of nutrients is influenced by maternal metabolic state, placenta function and fetal demands. Human in vivo studies of this interplay are scarce and challenging. We aimed to establish a method to study placental nutrient transfer in humans. Focusing on glucose, we tested a hypothesis that maternal glucose concentrations and uteroplacental arterio-venous differen...

The mechanisms by which the fetus induces maternal physiological adaptations to pregnancy are unclear. Cellular debris, shed from the placental syncytiotrophoblast into the maternal blood and phagocytosed by maternal endothelial and immune cells, may be one of these mechanisms. Here we show that trophoblastic debris from normal first trimester placentae induces changes in the transcriptome and ...

Angiogenic markers are now being incorporated into clinical practice for the screening, diagnosing, and monitoring of preeclampsia. Pregnancy requires both vasculogenesis and angiogenesis in the fetal compartment and angiogenesis in the maternal compartment. Abnormal angiogenesis in the placenta determines impaired remodeling of the maternal spiral arteries and placental underperfusion that may...