placenta

Pregnant women should think twice about high-fat foods. Scientists found that female mice fed high-fat diets were more likely to have oversized offspring (a risk factor for overweight and obesity) because fat causes the placenta to go into "overdrive" by providing too many nutrients to the fetus.

This also suggests the reverse may be true -- high fat diets may help prevent undersized babies.

Researchers have shown that the origin and evolution of the placenta and uterus in mammals is associated with evolutionary changes in a single regulatory protein, according to new report.

Researchers have uncovered the molecular underpinnings of one of the earliest steps in human development using human embryonic stem cells.

Their identification of a critical signal mediated by the protein BMP-4 that drives the differentiation of stem cells into what will become the placenta, will be published in Cell Stem Cell.

The finding, they say, also highlights one aspect of human cell biology that has not been replicated in other animal model systems.

Solving a long-standing biological mystery, stem cell researchers have discovered that blood stem cells, the cells that later differentiate into all the cells in the blood supply, originate and are nurtured in the placenta.

The mothers of some autistic children may have made antibodies against their fetuses' brain tissue during pregnancy that crossed the placenta and caused changes that led to autism, suggests new research in the Journal of Neuroimmunology.