Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The placenta (pl.: placentas or placentae) is a temporary embryonic and later fetal organ that begins developing from the blastocyst shortly after implantation.It plays critical roles in facilitating nutrient, gas and waste exchange between the physically separate maternal and fetal circulations, and is an important endocrine organ, producing hormones that regulate both maternal and fetal ...
The fetal circulation is composed of the placenta, umbilical blood vessels encapsulated by the umbilical cord, heart and systemic blood vessels. A major difference between the fetal circulation and postnatal circulation is that the lungs are not used during the fetal stage resulting in the presence of shunts to move oxygenated blood and ...
The placenta does not block maternal IgG antibodies, which thereby may pass through the human placenta, providing immune protection to the fetus against infectious diseases. One model for the induction of tolerance during the very early stages of pregnancy is the eutherian fetoembryonic defense system (eu-FEDS) hypothesis. [ 10 ]
The placenta plays an important role in this conflict since it is the source of nutrient delivery from mother to fetus, and also receives signals from both mother and fetus. The placenta is believed to play a balancing role in the conflict between mother and fetus, and confers optimal fitness to the fetus given the developmental constraints of ...
The placenta develops once the blastocyst is implanted, connecting the embryo to the uterine wall. The decidua here is termed the decidua basalis; it lies between the blastocyst and the myometrium and forms the maternal part of the placenta. The implantation is assisted by hydrolytic enzymes that erode the epithelium.
[7] [8] This protects the fetus and placenta from oxidative stress during early development in the histiotrophic (glandular nutrition) stage. As fetal nutrition switches to the hemotrophic (blood-derived nutrition) stage, EVT plugs dissolve and perfusion of maternal blood begins, allowing further development of both the fetus and placenta.
In the placenta, the intervillous space is the space between chorionic villi, and contains maternal blood.. The trophoblast, which is a collection of cells that invades the maternal endometrium to gain access to nutrition for the fetus, proliferates rapidly and forms a network of branching processes which cover the entire embryo and invade and destroy the maternal tissues.
Placentation is the formation, type and structure, or modes of arrangement of the placenta.The function of placentation is to transfer nutrients, respiratory gases, and water from maternal tissue to a growing embryo, and in some instances to remove waste from the embryo.