Abstract
The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between placental pathological findings and physiological development during the neonate and infantile periods. Study participants were 258 infants from singleton pregnancies enrolled in the Hamamatsu Birth Cohort for Mothers and Children (HBC Study) whose placentas were stored in our pathological division. They were followed up from birth to 18 months of age. Physiological development (body weight and the ponderal index [PI]) was assessed at 0, 1, 4, 6, 10, 14, and 18 months. Placental blocks were prepared by random sampling and eleven pathological findings were assessed, as follows: ‘Accelerated villous maturation’, ‘Decidual vasculopathy’, ‘Thrombosis or Intramural fibrin deposition’, ‘Avascular villi’, ‘Delayed villous maturation’, ‘Maternal inflammatory response’, ‘Fetal inflammatory response’, ‘Villitis of unknown etiology (VUE)’, ‘Deciduitis’, ‘Maternal vascular malperfusion’, and ‘Fetal vascular malperfusion’. Mixed model analysis with the use of the xtmixed command by the generic statistical software, Stata version 13.1., identified ‘Accelerated villous maturation’ and ‘Maternal vascular malperfusion’ as significant predictors of a lower body weight and ‘Deciduitis’ as a significant predictor of a small PI, throughout the first 18 months of life. In conclusion, the present study is the first to demonstrate that some pathological findings of the placenta are associated with changes in infantile physical development during the initial 18 months of life in the Japanese population.
Highlights
The placenta is the largest fetal organ that links the mother to the fetus and supports most parts of organogenesis through the transport of nutrients, gases, and hormone synthesis [1, 2]
We recently demonstrated that changes in specific lipid profiles in the villi were responsible for pathologically abnormal placental findings using a two-dimensional imaging system based on a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)-based mass spectrometer [12]
We performed a comprehensive analysis to identify links between infant physical development and pathological placental findings using 258 whole placentas from singleton pregnancies, which were stored in our pathological division, among 1,258 pregnant women who were enrolled in the HBC study
Summary
The placenta is the largest fetal organ that links the mother to the fetus and supports most parts of organogenesis through the transport of nutrients, gases, and hormone synthesis [1, 2]. A recent programing hypothesis revealed that epigenetic changes during the early critical periods are closely associated with health and diseases in later life [3,4,5,6]. Placental pathology permits clinicians to study the intrauterine environment of the fetus and some of the fetal responses to maternal diseases. Because placental pathology represents pathophysiological changes, and physiological placental adaptations to various environmental factors, such as infection, malcirculation, chronic hypoxia on the maternal and fetal sides, and maternal hyperglycemia [10, 11]. Increasing evidence suggests that physiological as well as pathophysiological changes in the placenta, including those with adaptations to the surrounding conditions, are connected to fetal well-being, and health and diseases after birth [1, 14]. We performed a comprehensive analysis to identify links between infant physical development and pathological placental findings using 258 whole placentas from singleton pregnancies, which were stored in our pathological division, among 1,258 pregnant women who were enrolled in the HBC study
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