title: An integrative view on the physiology of human early placental villi.
abstract: The placenta is an indispensable organ for intrauterine protection, development and growth of the embryo and fetus. It provides tight contact between mother and conceptus, enabling the exchange of gas, nutrients and waste products. The human placenta is discoidal in shape, and bears a hemo-monochorial interface as well as villous materno-fetal interdigitations. Since Peter Medawar's astonishment to the paradoxical nature of the mother-fetus relationship in 1953, substantial knowledge in the domain of placental physiology has been gathered. In the present essay, an attempt has been made to build an integrated understanding of morphological dynamics, cell biology, and functional aspects of genomic and proteomic expression of human early placental villous trophoblast cells followed by a commentary on the future directions of research in this field.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cell Biology, Histology and Embryology, Medical University of Graz, Austria. Electronic address: berthold.huppertz@medunigraz.at.
authors.forename: Berthold
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Huppertz
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Electronic address: d.ghosh@aiims.ac.in.
authors.forename: Debabrata
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, North DMC Medical College, Hindu Rao Hospital, Delhi 110007, India. Electronic address: jsen47@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Jayasree
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sengupta
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis; D002824:Chorionic Villi / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D004702:Endocrine Glands / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010829:Physiological Phenomena; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D015398:Signal Transduction
keywords: Early pregnancy loss; IUGR; Placenta; Pre-eclampsia; Transcriptomics; Trophoblast