They create mini placentas to study diseases during pregnancy



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The Lara Press | EFEA group of researchers from the University of Cambridge published Wednesday in the journal Nature a study on an innovative technique to analyze the development of the human placenta through laboratory cultures, which will help to better understand diseases occurring during pregnancy.

The process involves the creation of organoids, that is, miniaturized models of organs developed in the laboratory and to better understand the development of a placenta in gestation.

In this way, we can study many of the disorders that occur during this process, such as preeclampsia, growth restriction and fetal death, which are caused by abnormal growth of the fetus in the placenta during the first trimester.

Until now, knowledge of the human placenta was limited due to the lack of functional models created in the laboratory with which it was possible to experiment, so that the development of organoids would make it possible expand research in this area.

The scientists, led by University of Cambridge professor Ashley Moffett, used the long-term generation of organoid cultures created from trophoblast cells extracted from the placenta during the first trimester, between six and nine weeks old. after. gestation

The cultures developed rapidly and developed three-dimensional organoidal structures during the first fifteen days. Even three randomly selected cultures continued to grow healthy after one year.

These organoids will also help to study the physiological, metabolic and hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy.

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