The fetomaternal interface in the placenta of three species of armadillos (Eutheria, Xenarthra, Dasypodidae)

Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology

Research

Lorenna C Rezende¹  Phelipe O Favaron¹  Maria A Miglino¹  Andrea Mess¹  Claudio G Barbeito² 

[1] Department of Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Av. Prof. Dr. Orlando Marques de Paiva, no. 87, Cidade Universitária, CEP 05508-000, São Paulo, SP, Brazil;Faculty of Veterinary Science, La Plata University, 118 La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina;

关键词: Spiral Artery;    Cytotrophoblast Cell;    Intervillous Space;    Chorioallantoic Placenta;    Invasive Placenta;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1477-7827-10-38

 received in 2012-02-28, accepted in 2012-04-24,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPlacental characters vary among Xenarthra, one of four supraordinal clades of Eutheria. Armadillos are known for villous, haemochorial placentas similar to humans. Only the nine-banded armadillo has been well studied so far.MethodsPlacentas of three species of armadillos were investigated by means of histology, immunohistochemistry including proliferation marker, and transmission and scanning electron microscopy.ResultsThe gross anatomy differed: Euphractus sexcinctus and Chaetophractus villosus had extended, zonary placentas, whereas Chaetophractus vellerosus had a disk. All taxa had complex villous areas within the maternal blood sinuses of the endometrium. Immunohistochemistry indicated the validity of former interpretations that the endothelium of the sinuses was largely intact. Tips of the villi and the columns entering the maternal tissue possessed trophoblast cell clusters with proliferation activity. Elsewhere, the feto-maternal barrier was syncytial haemochorial with fetal vessels near the surface.ConclusionsDifferences among armadillos occurred in regard to the extension of the placenta, whereas the fine structure was similar. Parallels to the human suggest that armadillos are likely to be useful animal models for human placentation.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Rezende et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.