[Histological observations on the chorionic villi of the diabetic placenta]

The diabetic woman's placenta does not present a uniform, specific pattern of abnormality. However the most prominent features are as follows: 1) Only in scattered areas of diabetic villi there is evidence of enlarged domains of PAS positive depositions which alternatively could be related to a thickening of the trophoblastic basement membrane or to the presence of chorio-gonadotropic hormones, which are also PAS positive glycoproteins. 2) villi from full-term diabetic placentae often, but not necessarily show an abnormal degree of morphological maturity of the length of gestational period. Villi appear to be unduly immature. Their vascularisation is lacking, and, on account of that, full-term diabetic placentae villi are comparable with those found in the 2nd trimester normal placentae. 3) there is a tendency for there to be an excessive number of fibrinoid deposits closely related to the syncytiotrophoblast.