Genetic origin and proportion of basal plate surface-lining cells in normal and abnormal pregnancies.

The human placenta is a transient organ, the villous surface of which is in direct contact with the maternal circulation during pregnancy. Thus, the syncytiotrophoblast and the basal plate-lining cells are considered continuous with the endothelial layer of the maternal vasculature. Two types of cells are found on the surface of the basal plate: trophoblasts (of fetal origin) and endothelial cells of putative maternal origin.

Tissue microarray: an effective high-throughput method to study the placenta for clinical and research purposes.

Objective: Tissue microarray (TMA) technology allows simultaneous examination of the expression of many molecular markers (protein, mRNA, DNA, etc.) with high-throughput. The application of this technology, to date, has been largely confined to the study of cancer.

Fetal macrophages are not present in the myometrium of women with labor at term.

Objective: The basic mechanisms responsible for human parturition remain to be elucidated. The influx of fetal leukocytes into the myometrium has been recently proposed to be a crucial event in the onset of murine parturition. Surfactant protein-A has been implicated in the initiation of labor.