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 ...

Your body undertakes an incredible responsibility during pregnancy: nurturing and growing another human life. At the centre of this process lies the placenta, an organ that many expecting parents are ...

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 ...

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 ...

The placenta plays a central role in fetal development by regulating nutrient transfer, hormonal signaling, and immune interactions, thereby shaping lifelong health outcomes. Evidence from ...

The amount of nutrients transported to the fetus by the placenta adjusts according to both the fetal drive for growth, and the mother's physical ability to provide, new research suggests. New research ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 – ...