title: Human Placental and Decidual Organ Cultures to Study Infections at the Maternal-fetal Interface.
abstract: The placenta shows a large degree of interspecies anatomic variability. To best understand biology and pathophysiology of the human placenta, it is imperative to design experiments using human cells and tissues. An advantage of organ culture is maintenance of three-dimensional (3D) structural organization and extracellular matrix. The goal of the method described here is successful establishment of ex vivo human gestational tissue organ cultures and their healthy culture maintenance for 72-96 hr. The protocol details the immediate processing of research-consented, placental and decidual specimens fresh from the operating suite. These are abundant specimens that would otherwise be discarded. Detailed instructions on the sterile collection of these samples, including morphologic details on how to select appropriate tissues to establish 3D organ cultures, is provided. Placental villous and decidual tissues are microdissected into 2-3 mm(3) pieces and placed separately on matrix-lined transwell filters and cultured for several days. Villous and decidual organ cultures are well suited for the study of human host-pathogen interaction. As compared to other model organisms, these human cultures are particularly advantageous to examine mechanism of infection for pathogens that demonstrate variable patterns of host specificity. As an example, we demonstrate infection of placental and decidual organ cultures with the clinically relevant, facultative intracellular bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes.
authors: Benioff Children's Hospital; Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco.
authors: Gabrielle A
authors: GA
authors: Rizzuto
authors: Center for Reproductive Sciences and Department of Obstetrics, University of California, San Francisco.
authors: Mirhan
authors: M
authors: Kapidzic
authors: Center for Reproductive Sciences and Department of Obstetrics, University of California, San Francisco.
authors: Matthew
authors: M
authors: Gormley
authors: Benioff Children's Hospital; Program in Microbial Pathogenesis and Host Defense, University of California, San Francisco; Biomedical Sciences Program, University of California, San Francisco; Anna.Bakardjiev@ucsf.edu.
authors: Anna I
authors: AI
authors: Bakardjiev
mesh_terms: D003656:Decidua / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D008089:Listeria monocytogenes; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D010920:Placenta / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy