Invasive placentation and cancer development shares many similar molecular and epigenetic pathways. Paternally expressed, growth promoting genes (SNRPN, PEG10 and MEST) which are known to play crucial role in tumorogenesis, are not well studied during placentation. This study reports for the first time of the impact of gestational-age, pathological conditions and folic acid supplementation on d...

Preeclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-specific syndrome characterized by hypertension, proteinuria and edema, which resolves on placental delivery. It is thought to be the consequence of impaired placentation due to inadequate trophoblastic invasion of the maternal spiral arteries. In PE the maternal plasma concentration of free vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and placental growth factor (...

OBJECTIVE To determine the usefulness of placental magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis and surgical management of abnormal placentation. DESIGN Retrospective follow-up. SETTING Buenos Aires, Argentina. POPULATION 547 pregnant women. METHODS In all cases, a direct and reliable description of abnormal placentation features was obtained by the operating surgeon. Placental MRI...

1. The Northern Clade of the fish genus Poeciliopsis includes six closely related species, three of which lack placentas and three that have placentas but vary in the extent of post-fertilization provisioning. 2. We used this diversity to evaluate a series of hypotheses proposed in earlier publications concerning why the placenta has evolved. All hypotheses share the attribute of arguing that t...

Uterine serpins (USs), designated as SERPINA14, are expressed in the endometrium in response to progesterone. All species identified as having USs exhibit epitheliochorial placentation and are in the Ruminantia and Suidae orders of the Laurasiatheria superorder. The objective was to identify US genes in species within and outside Laurasiatheria and evaluate whether evolution of the US gene was ...

The onset of pregnancy implies the appearance of a new organ, the placenta. One main function of the placenta is to supply oxygen to the fetus via hemoproteins. In this review, we highlight the importance of the enzyme heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) for pregnancy to be established and maintained. HO-1 expression is pivotal to promote placental function and fetal development, thus determining the succe...

Background. Poor placentation and systemic endothelial dysfunction have been identified as main events in Preeclampsia (PE). The relationship and chronology of these phenomena are important if we are to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this major clinical problem. Objectives. To compare the evolution of placentation and endothelial function in normotensive and preeclampti...

Despite abundant examples of both adaptation at the level of phenotype and Darwinian selection at the level of genes, correlations between these two processes are notoriously difficult to identify. Positive Darwinian selection on genes is most easily discerned in cases of genetic conflict, when antagonistic evolutionary processes such as a Red Queen race drive the rate of nonsynonymous substitu...