A human hormone-synthesizing trophoblastic cell system has been established in vitro and may prove to be the first func tional human embryonic cell line in continuous culture. Chorionic gonadotropin hormone produced by these cultures serve as a marker for identification of the trophoblastic cell. No interruption in this property nor change in cytologie display has occurred during 1.5 years in c...

and remits dramatically after the placenta has been delivered. Despite extensive research, the pathophysiology of this condition remains unclear. Accumulating evidence, however, indicates that failure of the cytotrophoblast invasion of maternal uterine spiral arteries plays a central role. 4) Consequently, reduction of utero placental blood perfusion by shallow implantation results in local pla...

Background: Experiments have shown that opioid drugs abuse during pregnancy can cause a delay in the development of the placenta. In mammals, the placenta is the most important channel for the exchange of Materialss between the maternal and fetal bloods. The present study investigates the time-dependent effect of the addiction duration of maternal morphine consumption during pregnancy. Material...

Metastatic carcinoma cells exploit the same molecular machinery that allows human placental cytotrophoblasts to develop an invasive phenotype. As altered expression levels of ADAMTS (ADisintegrin And Metalloproteinase with ThromboSpondin repeats) subtypes have been associated with cancer progression, we have examined the function and regulation of members of this gene family in epithelial cell ...

The aims of this study were to establish whether both the cystic fibrosis (CF) and multidrug resistance (MDR1) genes are expressed in the human placenta during development and differentiation. To study their pattern of expression during development, RNA was extracted from first, second and third trimester human placentas. To investigate differentiation, RNA was extracted from cytotrophoblast ce...

BACKGROUND Hystricognath rodents have a lobed placenta, comprising labyrinthine exchange areas and interlobular trophoblast. These correspond to the labyrinthine and spongy zones of other rodent placentae. Beneath them, however, is a structure unique to hystricognath rodents called the subplacenta. We here describe the subplacenta of the red-rumped agouti and examine the possible functional cor...