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Lab-grown "mini-placentas" can mimic early pregnancy & nbsp | Photo: & nbspThinkstock
London: Scientists created mini artificial placentas in the lab after nearly three decades of research, offering hope to combat miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births transforming research on pregnancy.
The new "mini-placentas" are a cellular model of the early stages of the placenta. They help to better understand the mysteries surrounding the relationships between the placenta, the uterus and the fetus. They also allow research to prevent certain infections from pbading from the mother's blood to the fetus. as well as on the Zika virus.
"These" mini placentas "built on decades of research will play an important role in helping us investigate early pregnancy events while profoundly affecting the health of the mother and her family. children throughout life. ", explains Professor Graham Burton of the University of Cambridge in the UK.
"The placenta provides all the oxygen and nutrients essential for the growth of the fetus.If it does not grow properly, the pregnancy may unfortunately end with a low birth weight baby or even a stillbirth, "he added. For the new study, published in the journal Nature, the team developed organoids, often called "mini-organs," using villous cells – tiny structures resembling fronds – extracted from placental tissues.
These trophoblastic organoids are able to survive for a long time, are genetically stable and organize into villous structures that secrete proteins and essential hormones that would affect the mother's metabolism during pregnancy.
Further badysis showed that organoids were very similar to normal placentas in the first trimester and that they could register a positive response to an over-the-counter pregnancy test.
In addition, these organoids could also be used for screening. The safety of drugs to use in early pregnancy, to understand how chromosomal abnormalities can disrupt normal development and possibly even provide stem cell-based therapies in the event of pregnancy failure.
The placenta is absolutely essential to support the baby as it grows up in the mother. . When it does not work properly, it can result in serious problems, from pre-eclampsia to miscarriage, with immediate consequences for the entire life of the mother and the child.
Human placental cell culture efforts began more than 30 years ago. Scientists in Cambridge have studied the cellular events of the first weeks of pregnancy.
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