The placenta is unique among organs—critical to human life yet fleeting. In its short time of duty, it serves as a vital protective barrier to the fetus. The organ’s blood vessels—which resemble tree roots in this image by Norman Barker, associate professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine—also deliver essential oxygen and nutrients from the mother to her developing baby. Still, the placenta has been vastly underappreciated. Scientists are taking a closer look and finding that it is much more than a simple conduit: it actively protects the fetus and shapes neurological development.

In a study published last summer, British researchers showed that when a mother mouse is deprived of food, the placenta takes over, breaking down its own tissue to nourish the fetal brain. Scientists at the University of Southern California’s Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute (ZNI) and their colleagues, meanwhile, upended decades of biological dogma when they reported that it is the placenta—not the mother—that provides the hormone serotonin to the fetus’s forebrain early in development. Because hormones play an essential role in brain wiring, even before they function as neurotransmitters in the brain, placental abnormalities could directly influence the risk of developing depression, anxiety and even autism. As a result, “we have to pay much closer attention to the health and welfare of the placenta,” says Pat Levitt, director of the ZNI and the study’s co-author.

This article was originally published with the title Fetal Armor.

6 Comments

1. 1. c.o.corroboration 09:09 AM 1/28/12

   What kind of diet is required for healthy placenta?

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2. 2. jtdwyer 12:41 PM 1/28/12

   Is this interpretation of development better supported than the perspective that it is the developmental requirements of fetal brains that has shaped placental development?

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3. 3. Bops 01:14 PM 1/28/12

   If you don't have something new to report, don't waste people's time.
   We are just fancy bio-batteries, that need healthy food and CLEAN water. It's common sense!!!!
   What's new about that?
   
   Let's work on cleaner water. Basic to ALL Life!
   (Only 1% is drinkable and water is VERY hard to clean)
   Kitchen grease is one the worst to get out of the water.
   Wipe with used paper towels and toss in the trash.
   
   Maybe we can recycle the toxins instead of making new ones.
   Is the topic too tough? We need to work on the basics needs first.
   
   Check out how many people take an acid-reflex drugs.
   You will be shocked!
   What wrong with the foods most of us are eating that triger the acid?
   
   Bitter taste is usually the signal for toxic.
   Burning is most times and allergic reaction.
   So...why eat foods that make us sick?
   
   Clean environments make and keep us healthy.
   Don't waste our time with old stuff we already know.
   Write about something we don't know.
   
   

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4. 4. annarather 06:35 PM 1/29/12

   Hi, I have hydrocephalus, but it doesn't run in the family. My theory of why I have this is that my mother's mother was prescribed Diethylstilbestrol. My mother was not supposed to be able to have children, but here I am. So, my question is why didn't the placenta protect me from this synthetic hormone?

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5. 5. twobyfour 12:40 PM 2/4/12

   Couldn't we think of the placenta as a separate, symbiotic creature, conceived by the woman's body at the same time as the fetus for the purpose of protecting and nourishing it? When its job is done, it is sacrificed -- its life ending as the baby's new life begins.

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6. 6. quizkid 10:57 PM 2/6/12

   It is common knowledge that leaving the placenta attached until it is expelled after birth provides a final gush of blood to the baby. However, most of the time the cord is cut before this takes place. Common sense should tell us that the cord cutting prior to the expulsion of the placenta should be forbidden. Maybe then some of the maladies associated with birth would not happen.
   Along with this, the mother should be allowed to nurse the baby within the first few hours after birth so the baby will be nourished by the colostrum which provides natural immunity.

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