Placental function in development and disease

Placental function in development and disease.

The placenta is an organ that clinicians and embryologists would all agree is important for pregnancy success. Unfortunately, however, they too often ignore it when they are exploring causes for embryonic, fetal and perinatal complications. The core function of the placenta is to mediate the transport of nutrients between the maternal and fetal circulation, but it also has critical endocrine fu...

PPAR Signaling in Placental Development and Function

With the major attention to the pivotal roles of PPARs in diverse aspects of energy metabolism, the essential functions of PPARgamma and PPARbeta/delta in placental development came as a surprise and were often considered a nuisance en route to their genetic analysis. However, these findings provided an opportune entrée into placental biology. Genetic and pharmacological studies, primarily of k...

The bovine placenta before and after birth: placental development and function in health and disease.

This paper reviews bovine placental development, anatomy (microscopic and gross), nomenclature and classification. The paper focuses on the biology of those specialized cells that arise from the outermost layer of very early embryos, the trophoblast cells, and on placental macrophages, cells that play a key role in fetal/placental defense. Data is presented from an immunohistochemical quantitat...

Campylobacter rectus Infection Impairs Placental Function and Development in Mice

Obesity and Placental Function.

An increasing number of women of reproductive age are obese which affects the continuum of pregnancy and is associated with an increased incidence of adverse maternal and fetal outcomes, including preeclampsia, preterm birth, stillbirth, congenital anomalies, and macrosomia. Maternal obesity is associated with an increased incidence of metabolic and cardiovascular disease later in life in the m...