Placenta
Cytomegalovirus (CM V) is one of the most frequent causes of intrauterine-acquired infection in the human species. However, very little is known about the pathophysiology of the transplacental transmission of the virus from the mother to the fetus. In this study, the passage of CM V across the human term placenta, and the susceptibility of the human term trophoblast to infection with CM V was investigated...
Human placenta is the major source of activin A in maternal circulation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate maternal activin A serum concentration in pregnant women with chronic hypertension (n=14), pregnancy-induced hypertension (n=10) or pre-eclampsia (n=16). In the group of pregnant women with chronic hypertension and of healthy pregnant women (n=10) activin A was measured in samples...
Transplacental clearances were measured for radiolabelled Cl - , S0 4 2 - , mannitol, sucrose, raffinose, PEG-900 and inulin. Maternal placental blood flows were measured with radiolabelled microspheres. At 18 days of gestation (term 31 days), the fetuses and extra fetal fluids were growing at 55 and 32 per cent per day, accounting for a net transplacental filtration rate of...
The purpose of this study was to identify the presence of placental neutral metalloendopeptidase (NEP; enkephalinase; EC 3.4.24. 11) in human normotensive and pre-eclamptic pregnancy. The localization of NEP in placentae from normotensive, chronic hypertensive and pre-eclamptic pregnancies was carried out on fresh frozen tissues by using a monoclonal primary antibody developed against human common...
We developed a method of propagating pure first trimester human trophoblast cells growing out of primary explants of mechanically derived chorionic villus fragments (Yagel et al, 1989; ). We have now extensively characterized these cells during their initial outgrowth and in long-term culture, employing a variety of markers and techniques as outlined below. By double label immunofluorescence using...
Serum placental isoferritin levels (PLF) levels were measured in 33 patients admitted for routine scanning of a first trimester normal singleton pregnancy and six patients who were hospitalized for uterine evacuation of a complete molar gestation. Venous blood was obtained upon admission and before curettage, when necessary. Serum was separated into glass tubes, immediately frozen and stored at -20...
A quantitative study on the effects of placental senescence on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was carried out by measuring mitochondrial gene mutation, levels of mRNA for the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and of mtDNA in normal placental tissues at different stages. Deleted mtDNA, the expression of COI in mitochondria and the amounts of mtDNA per cell were examined by the polymerase chain reaction,...