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Studies On Mysterious Placenta Holds Answers To Life’s Healthy Beginnings

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The placenta is perhaps one of the human body’s most mysterious organs, often dismissed after birth and discarded once a baby is born. But this mass of tissue holds many important clues on life, how it begins, how it sustains and how it can go wrong, Tulsa World reports

Scientists are now probing into the placenta to get answers, starting with a placenta donated after birth, with the umbilical cord still in place. Knowing more about the placenta can help in preventing stillbirths, preterm births, preeclampsia and even infections that affect the fetus, such as Zika.

Dr. Catherine Spong of the National Institutes of Health, which has put up $50 million in the Human Placenta Project, says of the placenta,

We take it for granted. Yet there are lifelong implications for both the mother and the baby.

The placenta is a multi-tasking organ: it provides nourishment to a fetus, acting as lungs, kidney and liver while it develops, gives it immune defense and produces important hormones. Doctors have a limited number of tools and methods to examine a placenta during pregnancy, as examining one after birth can only reveal so much.

Since the Zika virus has caused shocking birth defects, scientists and doctors are more determined to find out about the placenta and discover treatments for when it is attacked. Dr. Yoel Sadovsky of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center says it could be any new virus, not just Zika. “If I was a virus and wanted to attack humans, probably the best time to do it was during pregnancy, where you’re attacking the next generation,” he added.

Engineer Avinash Eranki, after studying a donated placenta, and a team of researchers at the Children’s National Health System are using a 3D bioprinter to make a living model of how a placenta is formed. The outer layer of a placenta is made up of cells known as trophoblasts that go past the uterine wall and burrow into a mother’s arteries, enlarging them so that blood flow reaches the fetus.

The researchers theorize that if those blood vessels don’t widen enough, the placenta will struggle to support the fetus, causing the mother’s organs to stress out.

The 3D placenta model mimics how trophoblasts work to create the fetus’ blood supply, with the printer depositing layers of human cells and other substances needed for growth.

Che-Ying Kuo of the University of Maryland and Children’s National says, “It can actually grow. It’s a dynamic piece of tissue.”

Once the model is complete, researchers can start studying it to detect early signs of preeclampsia, and the placenta’s defense mechanisms. Today, the only cure for preeclampsia is to deliver the baby prematurely.

At the NIH, scientists are looking to solve another problem: it’s difficult to tell how much oxygen is reaching the fetus. Doctors use indirect measurements, like fetal heart rates to identify problems. Afrouz Anderson, a biomedical engineer with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, is making a wireless device called an oximeter that uses near-infrared light to measure oxygen levels in the placenta when held over a mother’s abdomen.

Anderson, who is currently testing the oximeter in a model that recreates blood flow through a placenta, says the device can be used during preeclampsia or when the fetus is not properly developing. Next year, she plans to work with military doctors on a study to measure what are normal oxygen levels in healthy, pregnant women.

Dr. Shad Deering, chairperson of Obstetrics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, says, “My biggest hope is if the oxygenation status would give a more accurate picture…we don’t have to go do a C-section because the baby’s actually happy.”

Dr. Anna Penn, a neonatologist at Children’s National, says, “It’s very exciting to see people focusing on the real-time changes that happen during a pregnancy and how those shape later outcomes.” Penn studies placenta hormones that affect brain development, to come up with protective treatments for premature babies.

The Zika virus, which can destroy a fetus’ developing brain when an infected mother passes the virus on, is proving to be a challenge as only very specific viruses can bypass the placenta to reach the fetus. Scientists are looking into how Zika works and have found that the virus only infects certain types of placental cells.

The last birth defect epidemic was rubella, or German measles, in the 1960s, which scientists had never solved because studies ended when rubella vaccinations began. Researchers say it’s important to get answers, even if Zika disappears, for future prevention.

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