Pregnant women undergo all kinds of medical checks. This is to monitor the health of both the mother and child and to detect potential abnormalities as early as possible. Although the ultrasound ...

The placenta has long been thought to produce serotonin during pregnancy. But in a new study, Yale researchers shatter the deep-rooted hypothesis—and show that the placenta doesn't produce serotonin ...

An important cancer-related gene may play a critical role in the development of the placenta, the organ that controls nutrient and oxygen exchange between a mother and her fetus during pregnancy, and ...

Infection of the placenta has been associated with preterm birth as well as neurocognitive impairment. This study aimed to determine whether specific bacterial species in the placenta of extremely ...

Pregnancy is often described as a miracle, and that is indeed true. Inside you, a new life develops with the support of an extraordinary organ, i.e., the placenta. But what makes this organ function ...

Researchers have discovered a direct association between placental function in pregnant women and future metabolic disorders in children and adults, a finding that could lead to earlier intervention ...

The syncytiotrophoblast is a multinucleated layer that plays a critical role in regulating functions of the human placenta during pregnancy. Maintaining the syncytiotrophoblast layer relies on ongoing ...

For most people, the placenta is simply viewed as a temporary organ that supports a baby during pregnancy and is discarded after delivery. However, modern medicine has begun to recognize that the ...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of nearly 10,000 long-lasting chemical compounds that stay in the environment and have been linked to adverse health effects on humans, including ...

Gestational diabetes can cause a multitude of complications in the offspring, but to date, the reasons are incompletely understood. A new study, exploring a foundational step in the process of ...

Considering how different they look from the outside, it might be surprising that all vertebrates – animals with a backbone – share the same, conserved set of organs. Chickens, fish, human beings – ...