MV-Flow and LumiFlow: new Doppler tools for the visualization of fetal blood vessels

AbstractPregnancy is associated with hemostatic challenges that may lead to thrombosis. Heparin cofactor II (HCII) is a glycosaminoglycan-dependent thrombin inhibitor present in both maternal and fetal plasma. HCII activity increases during pregnancy, and HCII levels are significantly decreased in women with severe pre-eclampsia. Dermatan sulfate (DS) specifically activates HCII and is abundant in the placenta, but the locations of DS and HCII in the placenta have not been determined. We present evidence that DS is the major anticoagulant glycosaminoglycan in the human placenta at term. DS isolated from human placenta contains disaccharides implicated in activation of HCII and has anticoagulant activity similar to that of mucosal DS. Immunohistochemical studies revealed that DS is associated with fetal blood vessels and stromal regions of placental villi but is notably absent from the syncytiotrophoblast cells in contact with the maternal circulation. HCII colocalizes with DS in the walls of fetal blood vessels and is also present in syncytiotrophoblast cells. Our data suggest that DS is in a position to activate HCII in the fetal blood vessels or in the stroma of placental villi after injury to the syncytiotrophoblast layer and thereby inhibit fibrin generation in the placenta.

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THE PATHOGENESIS OF ERYTHROBLASTOSIS FETALIS

Blood ◽

10.1182/blood.v4.11.1249.1249 ◽

1949 ◽

Vol 4 (11) ◽

pp. 1249-1255 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

B. S. KLINE

Keyword(s):

Red Blood Cells ◽

Blood Vessels ◽

Peripheral Blood ◽

Blood Cells ◽

Maternal Blood ◽

Fetal Blood ◽

Fetal Circulation ◽

Nucleated Red Blood Cells

Abstract The mechanism of transfer, in cases of erythroblastosis fetalis, of incompatible fetal red blood cells to the mother and of maternal blood with antibody to the fetus, was observed especially well in 2 cases in which the infants were born alive. The two placentas showed occlusion of peripheral blood vessels of many villi and trunks by agglutinated red blood cells and fibrin. Associated with the vascular thromboses, there were, in places, necrosis of the walls and of regional tissues with rupture and hemorrhage of fetal blood, containing numerous intact nucleated red blood cells, into regional intervillous spaces. Through the broken surfaces, adjacent maternal blood was in contact with the fetal circulation. A more accurate designation for "erythroblastosis fetalis" would be "transplacental erythrocytotoxic anemia."

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Elastic type fetal blood vessels in human placental stem villi

Placenta ◽

10.1016/s0143-4004(96)90135-6 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 17 (5-6) ◽

pp. A19

Author(s):

R. Graf ◽

H. Neudeck ◽

D. Matejevic ◽

K. Vetter

Keyword(s):

Blood Vessels ◽

Fetal Blood ◽

Stem Villi

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Blood Vessels of the Twin Placenta in Relation to Zygosity

Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae ◽

10.1017/s0001566000013969 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 121-124 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Indra Bhargava

Keyword(s):

Blood Vessels ◽

Conjoined Twins ◽

Congenital Defects ◽

Multiple Pregnancies ◽

Fetal Blood ◽

Anatomical Characteristics ◽

Prenatal Environment ◽

Additional Support

The anatomical characteristics of the arteries, veins and arteriovenous relationships, velamentous vessels, and vascular communications in 148 placentae from multiple pregnancies were studied. All features were found to show discordance of varying degrees, irrespective of the twins' zygosity. Singular involvement of one component of the twin placenta by hydramnios or congenital defects, incidence of vascular communications and the anatomical characteristics of the vessels in conjoined twins, acardiac monsters and triplets, and a chromosomal discordance in a MZ pair, lend additional support to the initial surmise of anatomical characteristics of fetal blood vessels of the placenta being determined by functional demands. It is suggested that the inequalities of prenatal environment be assessed by an examination of the fetal blood vessels of the placenta before drawing homologies in the twin concordance studies.

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Histomorphometrical Study of Placental from Male and Female Neonates of Diabetic Women

Ibn AL- Haitham Journal For Pure and Applied Science ◽

10.30526/32.2.2125 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Estabraq A. Mahmoud ◽

Nahla A. Al-Bakri ◽

Ban J. Qasim

Keyword(s):

Gestational Diabetes ◽

Blood Vessels ◽

Fetal Blood ◽

Male And Female ◽

Overt Diabetes ◽

Terminal Villi ◽

Male Neonate ◽

Dm Type 2

Objective: To investigate occur the histomatrical alternations in placental terminal villi and their vessels of Iraqi diabetes (gestational diabetes and overt diabetes) and normal pregnancies were born male and female neonates. Methods: The hitometrical study of male and female terminal villi of 68 placentae in maternal diabetes mellitus (34 gestational diabetes, 34 overt diabetes (17 DM type 1 and 17 DM type 2) and 34 normal placentae. These placentae obtained from Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in three hospitals in Baghdad city. Results: The study showed that there is a statistically significant with higher diameter in central and peripheral sections of the terminal villi and their vessels in male neonate. Moreover, terminal villous diameter in central and peripheral sections of placentae in both male and female neonates appeared highly significant differences (P≤0.001) between DM type 1 and DM type 2, but fetal blood vessels in this terminal villous did not record any significant difference (P>0.05). Conclusions: The current results concluded that increasing in diameters terminal villous and their fetal blood vessels of central and peripheral sections of placentae recorded increasing diameters of GDM peripheral sections of placentae in male neonate in comparison to placental sections of other study groups.

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SARS-CoV-2 cell entry gene ACE2 expression in immune cells that infiltrate the placenta in infection-associated preterm birth

10.1101/2020.09.27.20201590 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Phatcharawan Lye ◽

Caroline Dunk ◽

Jianhong Zhang ◽

Yanxing Wei ◽

Jittanan Nakpu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Preterm Birth ◽

Blood Vessels ◽

Immune Cells ◽

Neonatal Infection ◽

Cell Entry ◽

M2 Macrophage ◽

Fetal Blood ◽

M1 Macrophage ◽

Acute Increase ◽

Peripheral Immune Cells

COVID-19 infection during pregnancy is associated with an increased incidence of preterm birth but neonatal infection is rare. We assessed pathways by which SARS-CoV-2 could access the placenta and contribute to fetal transmission. Placentas from pregnancies complicated with chorioamnionitis (ChA), exhibited increased expression of ACE2 mRNA. Treatment of 2nd trimester placental explants with LPS, induced an acute increase in cytokine expression followed by ACE2 mRNA. Placental ACE2 protein localized to syncytiotrophoblast, in fetal blood vessels and M1/M2 macrophage and neutrophils within the villous stroma. Increased numbers of M1 macrophage and neutrophils were present in the placenta of ChA pregnancies. Maternal peripheral immune cells (mainly granulocytes and monocytes) express the ACE2 mRNA and protein. These data suggest that in COVID19 positive pregnancies complicated by ChA, ACE2 positive immune cells have the potential to traffic SARS-CoV-2 virus to the placenta and increase the risk of vertical transmission to the placenta/fetus.

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