Endocrine - Placenta Development

Embryology - 18 Apr 2024        Expand to Translate
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Introduction

Pregnancy Test

For complete notes on placenta development and function see Placenta Development.

Lecture - Placenta Development

• Human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) - like leutenizing hormone, supports corpus luteum in ovary, pregnant state rather than menstrual, maternal urine in some pregnancy testing

• Human chorionic somatommotropin (hCS) - or placental lactogen stimulate (maternal) mammary development
• Human chorionic thyrotropin (hCT)
• Human chorionic corticotropin (hCACTH)
• progesterone and estrogens - support maternal endometrium
• Relaxin

• Placenta - Maternal (decidua) and Fetal (trophoblastic cells, extraembryonic mesoderm) components
• Endocrine function - maternal and fetal precursors, synthesis and secretion
  • Protein Hormones - chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), chorionic somatomammotropin (hCS) or placental lactogen (hPL), chorionic thyrotropin (hCT), chorionic corticotropin (hCACTH)
    • hCG - up to 20 weeks, fetal adrenal cortex growth and maintenance
    • hCS – rise through pregnancy, stimulates maternal metabolic processes, breast growth
  • Steroid Hormones - progesterone (maintains pregnancy), estrogens (fetal adrenal/placenta)

Some Recent Findings

Review - The endocrine function of human placenta: an overview "During pregnancy, several tightly coordinated and regulated processes take place to enable proper fetal development and gestational success. The formation and development of the placenta is one of these critical pregnancy events. This organ plays essential roles during gestation, including fetal nourishment, support and protection, gas exchange and production of several hormones and other mediators. Placental hormones are mainly secreted by the syncytiotrophoblast, in a highly and tightly regulated way. These hormones are important for pregnancy establishment and maintenance, exerting autocrine and paracrine effects that regulate decidualization, placental development, angiogenesis, endometrial receptivity, embryo implantation, immunotolerance and fetal development. In addition, because they are released into maternal circulation, the profile of their blood levels throughout pregnancy has been the target of intense research towards finding potential robust and reliable biomarkers to predict and diagnose pregnancy-associated complications." The feto-placental unit, and potential roles of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) in prenatal and postnatal brain development "Synthesis of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) by the fetal adrenal gland is important for placental oestrogen production, and may also be important for modulating the effects of glucocorticoids on the developing brain. ... Together, the studies outlined in this review indicate that the androgen DHEA is an important hormone of adrenal and Central Nervous System (CNS) origin in the fetal and postnatal spiny mouse. Disturbance of the development of these fetal tissues, and/or of the relationship between the fetal adrenal gland and placenta during pregnancy, may have significant consequences for fetal development, placental function, and maturation of the brain. It is proposed that such disturbances of normal adrenal function could account for some of the neuropathologies that arise in juvenile and adult offspring following illness and stress experienced by the mother during pregnancy." Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Induces Human Macrophages to Form Intracytoplasmic Vacuoles Mimicking Hofbauer Cells in Human Chorionic Villi The most characteristic morphological feature of macrophages in the stroma of placental villi, known as Hofbauer cells, is their highly vacuolated appearance. They also show positive immunostaining for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)." Serum biomarkers for predicting pregnancy outcome in women undergoing IVF "This study was performed to assess the prognostic value of serum hCG, progesterone, and inhibin A levels measured at 11 days post-ET for predicting pregnancy outcome in women participating in IVF. Between May 2005 and April 2008, sera were obtained from 70 infertile women who underwent IVF-ET at 11 days post-ET and stored. HCG, progesterone, and inhibin A levels were measured by commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. The predictive accuracy of hCG, progesterone, and inhibin A levels for establishment of intrauterine pregnancy and ongoing pregnancy was calculated by receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis. For the prediction of intrauterine and ongoing pregnancy, serum hCG was better than progesterone and inhibin A. The predictive performance of progesterone and inhibin A was similar. The serum progesterone and inhibin A levels were significantly correlated each other (r=0.915, p=0.010)."

More recent papers

This table allows an automated computer search of the external PubMed database using the listed "Search term" text link. This search now requires a manual link as the original PubMed extension has been disabled. The displayed list of references do not reflect any editorial selection of material based on content or relevance. References also appear on this list based upon the date of the actual page viewing. References listed on the rest of the content page and the associated discussion page (listed under the publication year sub-headings) do include some editorial selection based upon both relevance and availability. More? References | Discussion Page | Journal Searches | 2019 References | 2020 References Search term: Endocrine Placenta <pubmed limit=5>Endocrine Placenta</pubmed>

Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin

Trophoblast hCG function

Human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) like leutenizing hormone, supports corpus luteum in ovary, pregnant state rather than menstrual.

Presence in the maternal urine is the basis of some pregnancy testing.

Trophoblast cell hCG

Links: NIH - The History of the Pregnancy Test

References

Reviews

<pubmed></pubmed> <pubmed>23697929</pubmed> <pubmed></pubmed> <pubmed></pubmed> <pubmed>12914725</pubmed>

Search PubMed

Search April 2010

• Endocrine Development - All (14277) Review (4620) Free Full Text (3140)

Search Pubmed: endocrine placenta development

External Links

External Links Notice - The dynamic nature of the internet may mean that some of these listed links may no longer function. If the link no longer works search the web with the link text or name. Links to any external commercial sites are provided for information purposes only and should never be considered an endorsement. UNSW Embryology is provided as an educational resource with no clinical information or commercial affiliation.

• National Institutes of Health (USA) Office of History - The History of the Pregnancy Test | of Pregnancy Testing

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Cite this page: Hill, M.A. (2024, April 18) Embryology Endocrine - Placenta Development. Retrieved from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Endocrine_-_Placenta_Development

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© Dr Mark Hill 2024, UNSW Embryology ISBN: 978 0 7334 2609 4 - UNSW CRICOS Provider Code No. 00098G