Review: Epithelial aspects of human placental trophoblast

C A R Boyd1

  • 1Brasenose College, Oxford OX1 4DJ, UK. richard.boyd@dpag.ox.ac.uk

Placenta
|January 8, 2013
PubMed

The placenta must act as a surrogate lung, gastrointestinal tract and kidney for the fetus as well as acting as an endocrine gland necessary for the maintenance of a successful pregnancy: to achieve this, to what extent does the trophoblast necessarily share a similar epithelial phenotype? Here I review from a historical and a contemporary perspective some relevant studies with an emphasis on the similarities and differences between small intestinal and trophoblast biology. Certain physiological, structural and cell biological similarities are striking.