Lecture 8 - Placenta and Fetal Membranes Flashcards
What is the first embryo stage where there are 2 different cells types? What are they?
Blastocyst: intracellular mass (ICM) and trophectoderm
What happens to the trophoblast cells once they reach the uterine stroma?
They differentiate into syncytiotrophoblast (=syncytial trophoblast) and cytotrophoblast (=cellular trophoblast)
What types of cells make up the embryonic portion of the placenta?
- Syncytiotrophoblast
2. Cytotrophoblast
What do the syncitiotrophoblast cells form upon implantation? How? Where is it?
It surrounds the embryo entirely and forms trophoblastic lacuna (fluid filled cavities)
What happens to the trophoblastic lacunae at days 8-12?
Syncytiotrophoblast produces digestive enzymes that eat away at arteriole and veniole capillaries which fills up the lacunae with maternal blood
What tissue lines the chorionic cavity and connects the embryo with yolk sac and amniotic cavity to the endometrium?
Extraembryonic mesoderm
List the 6 layers of the placenta at day 14-15. What is the whole structure with all 6 layers called?
- Extraembryonic mesodern
- Cytotrophoblast
- Syncytiotrophoblast
- Trophoblastic lacuna
- Maternal blood vessels
- Uterine tissues = endometrium
=> primary stem villus
How does the syncytiotrophoblast form?
Once the trophoblast cells enter the stroma they proliferate and loose their membrane resulting in a confluent cytoplasm with many nuclei scattered throughout: the syncytiotrophoblast
How does the primary stem villus develop into a secondary stem villus? Timing?
Signals between the extraembryonic mesoderm and the cytotrophoblast causes the extraembryonic mesoderm cells to proliferate on top of each other and grow into the primary stem villus toward the uterine tissue
Day 14-15
How does the secondary stem villus develop into a tertiary stem villus? Timing?
Cytotrophoblast penetrates through the syncytiotrophoblast to reach the uterine tissue (no cells are broken through though) and the extraembryonic mesoderm that comes along contains chorionic arteries and veins
Day 21
Are the chorionic arteries and veins embryonic?
YUP
How are chorionic arteries and veins formed?
Vasculogenesis of the extraembryonic mesoderm
What is the hemochorial circulation? When does this happen?
Circulation in the placenta when maternal blood is in direct contact with the chorion BUT THE BLOODS DO NOT MIX
At the tertiary stem villus stage (>21 days)
Result on maternal circulation of the development of tertiary stem villi?
Blood pressure building in the trophoblastic lacunae
What do we call the cytotrophoblast cells that are in contact with uterine tissue in tertiary stem villi?
Outer cytotrophoblast shell
Other name for endometrium?
Decidua tissue
How do the tertiary villi develop? Purpose?
They branch, pushing into the trophoblastic lacunae to increase surface area to increase nutrient transfer => eventually become terminal villi attached to main stem villi
Other name for trophoblastic lacunae after day 21?
Intervillus space
What does the uterine tissue of the tertiary stem villi become after day 21? What is it made of?
Maternal portion of the placenta
Made of decidual cells from the endometrial stroma
What do we call the extraembryonic mesoderm that surrounds the chorionic vessels in the intervillus space?
Chorion = embryonic portion of the placenta
Role of umbilical vein?
Transport blood that has been oxygenated by maternal blood in viili of the placenta to the fetal heart
Role of umbilical arteries? How many of them are there?
Transport blood that has been deoxygenated by the fetus away from the heart and into viili of the placenta
Describe the chorionic blood vessels.
More like blood islands rather than vessels fused with each other to form a vasculature
What keeps the maternal and fetal blood separated in the placenta?
- Cytotrophoblasts
- Syncytiotrophoblasts
- Extraembryonic mesoderm
- Endothelial cells lining capillaries (particularly the fetal ones)
What is the chorion frondosum? Where is it located?
Functional portion of the chorion that surrounds the villi in the placenta
Located at the embryonic pole
What is the chorion laeve? Where is it located?
Portion of the placenta with tertiary villi that broke down => NOT FUNCTIONAL
Located at abembryonic pole
What is the chorion cavity?
Cavity that surrounds the embryo, amniotic cavity, yolk sac, and allantois
When are endometrial cells called decidua cells?
Following implantation, the stromal cells begin to swell as they begin to accumulate lipids and glycogen in the cytoplasm => after swelling the stromal cells are called decidual cells
What are the 2 types of maternal decidual cells of the placenta? Describe each.
- Decidua basalis: portion of the decidua which lies over and associates with the chorion frondosum
- Decidua capsularis: portion of the decidua which lies over the chorion laeve
What are the decidual septa? When do they form? Purpose?
By the third month of pregnancy, portions of the decidua basalis will grow in between the intervillous spaces => formation of the decidual septa, which divide the placenta into compartments called cotyledons
Purpose: they are surrounded and bathed by maternal blood and speed up the exchange of oxygen and nutrients as they allow maternal blood to bathe around the terminal villi and be pushed against them
What is the decidua parietalis?
Part of the uterine lining that is initially separated from the developing embryo but that eventually fuses with the decidua capsularis and the chorionic laeve
What is the chorionic plate?
Extraembryonic mesoderm that lines the chorionic cavity
Describe the maternal arteries that supply the placenta. How are the formed?
Maternal spiral arteries bringing oxygenated and nutrient rich blood to intervillous spaces
PLGF (placental growth factor), secreted by the placenta, stimulates the branching of the spiral arteries, which allows for increased surface area for gas, nutrient, hormone exchange.
What vessels remove wastes and deoxygenated blood from the placenta?
Endometrial veins
Placental blood flow by week 18?
500 mL/min
What are the 3 main functions of the placenta?
- Transport
- Barrier
- Hormone production