Pandemics pose a more significant threat to pregnant women than to the nonpregnant population and may have a detrimental effect on the well being of the fetus. We have developed an animal model to evaluate the consequences of a viral infection characterized by lack of fetal transmission. The experiments described in this work show that viral infection of the placenta can elicit a fetal inflamma...

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is common, affecting around 10% of all pregnancies. Growth restricted fetuses fail to achieve their genetically predetermined size and often weigh <10th centile for gestation. However, even appropriately grown can be affected, with the diagnosis FGR missed before birth. Babies have a higher rate stillbirth, neonatal morbidity such as breathing problems, neurodevel...

Fetal trisomy 16 is considered uniformly lethal early in gestation. It has been reported to be associated with the variability of clinical features and outcomes. Mosaic trisomy 16 leads to a high risk of abnormality in prenatal cases. Intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) is a common outcome of mosaic trisomy 16. Herein, we report on the case of Thai male IUGR fetus with trisomy 16 mosaicism. ...

Placental malaria, especially when complicated with intervillositis, can cause fetal growth restriction. Transplacental glucose transport by glucose transporter isoform 1 (GLUT-1) on the syncytiotrophoblast microvillous and basal plasma membranes regulates fetal growth. We found that GLUT-1 expression in the microvillous plasma membrane of Plasmodium falciparum-negative placenta biopsy specimen...

Almost all water that enters the conceptus of the sheep enters via the placenta. The forces that drive water are hydrostatic and osmotic. The placental channels that allow water to cross into the fetus have not been identified by microanatomic means. Although an "equivalent pore" system can account for the diffusional entry of small hydrophilic solutes, it can be calculated that the filtration ...

The insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system regulates fetal and placental growth and development. In maternal diabetes, components of this system including insulin, IGF1, IGF2 and various IGF-binding proteins are deregulated in the maternal or fetal circulation, or in the placenta. The placenta expresses considerable amounts of insulin and IGF1 receptors at distinct locations on both pl...

Hormones are both growth stimulatory and growth inhibitory in utero. They regulate tissue growth and development by controlling the rates of cell proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation in many fetal tissues. They also signal the level of resources available for intrauterine growth to the fetal tissues and relay back to the placenta the degree of mismatch between the actual fetal nutrient ...

Thyroid hormones (THs) are essential for normal fetal development, with even mild perturbation in maternal thyroid status in early pregnancy being associated with neurodevelopmental delay in children. Transplacental transfer of maternal THs is critical, with increasing evidence suggesting a role for 3,3',5-tri-iodothyronine (T3) in development and function of the placenta itself, as well as in ...

background and aim: horseshoe placenta is a variant of ring-shaped placenta. ring-shaped placenta is a rare anomaly seen in fewer than 1 in 6000 deliveries, which could be seen as horseshoe shape due to atrophy in a portion of the ring. this report refers to a possible relationship between the horseshoe shape placenta and preterm labor; although it has not been yet validated in the literature. ...

The mechanisms for provisioning maternal resources to offspring in placental mammals involve complex interactions between maternally regulated and fetally regulated gene networks in the placenta, a tissue that is derived from the zygote and therefore of fetal origin. Here we describe a novel use of an embryo transfer system in mice to identify gene networks in the placenta that are regulated by...