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Blood Flow and Respiratory Gas Exchange in the Human Placenta at Term: A Data Update

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Oxygen Transport to Tissue XLIII

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 1395))

Abstract

Reliable measurements using modern techniques and consensus in experimental design have enabled the assessment of novel data sets for normal maternal and foetal respiratory physiology at term. These data sets include (a) principal factors affecting placental gas transfer, e.g., maternal blood flow through the intervillous space (IVS) (500 mL/min) and foeto-placental blood flow (480 mL/min), and (b) O2, CO2 and pH levels in the materno-placental and foeto-placental circulation. According to these data, the foetus is adapted to hypoxaemic hypoxia. Despite flat oxygen partial pressure (pO2) gradients between the blood of the IVS and the umbilical arteries of the foetus, adequate O2 delivery to the foetus is maintained by the higher O2 affinity of the foetal blood, high foetal haemoglobin (HbF) concentrations, the Bohr effect, the double-Bohr effect, and high foeto-placental (=umbilical) blood flow. Again, despite flat gradients, adequate CO2 removal from the foetus is maintained by a high diffusion capacity, high foeto-placental blood flow, the Haldane effect, and the double-Haldane effect. Placental respiratory gas exchange is perfusion-limited, rather than diffusion-limited, i.e., O2 uptake depends on O2 delivery.

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Acknowledgement

The authors thank Anett Lange for her help in preparation of this chapter, and Professor A. Graham Pockley, Nottingham Trent University (UK), for linguistic support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany

    Peter Vaupel

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology and Central Institute for Translational Cancer Research (TranslaTUM), Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany

    Gabriele Multhoff

Authors
  1. Peter Vaupel
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  2. Gabriele Multhoff
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Correspondence to Peter Vaupel .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Felix Scholkmann

  2. Department of Physiology & Biophysics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Joseph LaManna

  3. Institute of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Ursula Wolf

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Vaupel, P., Multhoff, G. (2022). Blood Flow and Respiratory Gas Exchange in the Human Placenta at Term: A Data Update. In: Scholkmann, F., LaManna, J., Wolf, U. (eds) Oxygen Transport to Tissue XLIII. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 1395. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14190-4_62

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