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British researchers announced Wednesday that they have succeeded in creating an artificial placenta at a very early stage, which could serve as an experimental model to help understand why some women experience complications during their pregnancy or fail to complete it. .
When the placenta does not work properly, "this can cause serious problems, such as pre-eclampsia or miscarriage. (…) But our knowledge of this important organ is very limited because we lack good experimental models" Margherita Turco, lead author of the study published in the scientific journal Nature, said in a statement.
Generally, medical research first tests on animals the potential and reliability of new treatments for humans. But "the human placenta is very different from that of other species, so animal models do not really work," Ashley Moffett, a professor in the Department of Pathology at Cambridge University, told a news conference. has been working for more than 30 years on placental cell culture.
His research team has isolated and cultured cells called trophoblasts, which form only a few days after fertilization and then become the placenta and umbilical cord.
Scientists have created what they call "mini-placentas", which reproduce in vitro the functioning of real placentas and secrete hormones and proteins that modify the metabolism of women during pregnancy.
They hope that this "organoid" model will better investigate abnormalities in placental development, which may prevent the embryo from implanting properly or causing problems in later pregnancy.
Pre-eclampsia is known to have originated in placental dysfunction, yet, according to the World Health Organization, about 47,000 women died in 2015 of this symptom characterized by high blood pressure badociated with an excessive presence of the placenta. protein in the urine.
It should also help to see how the medicine taken by the mother affects the placenta and to understand why some infections pbad this natural barrier (such as the Zika virus) while others do not (like the dengue fever, yet close).
Last year, the same Cambridge team managed to replenish uterine lining in culture – the tissue that covers the lining of the uterus and implants the placenta in pregnancy.
© 2018 AFP
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