Biomedicine

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Terminal villi form the functional units of the placenta. The terminal villi consist of
a layer of cytotrophoblast and syncytiotrophoblast with a core of mesoderm with blood vessels. These villi
form the placental barrier and transfer nutrients from mother to fetus and waste products from fetus to mother.
Successful pregnancy depends upon the formation of blood vessels in the placenta to supply the increasing
demand for nutrition for developing the embryo. Inadequate vessel formation can result in impaired placental
growth, malfunction, hypoxia, and fetal malnutrition that may result in fetal death. This study has been taken
up to study the normal vasculature of the terminal villi of term placenta.
Materials and Methods: One hundred and fourteen normal placentae of 37-41 weeks of gestational age were
collected and stained with Hematoxylin and Eosin.
Results: The mean of blood vessels/terminal villi was 6.88 with a standard deviation of 1.39. The number of
vessels/terminal villi was reduced from 37 - 41 weeks of gestation.
Conclusion: In this study, we tried to study the normal vasculature of terminal villi by the histological method,
which explains about normal physiology of blood circulation in the placenta.