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Development of the human placental trophoblast: anatomy, signalling pathways and key regulatory factors

Submission status
Closed
The intent of the review series is to provide a detailed platform for discussing our current understanding of human placentation. Normal development and differentiation of the human placenta and its epithelial cells, the trophoblasts, are critical for successful pregnancy and fetal outcome since failures in these processes are associated with a variety of pregnancy disorders such as miscarriage, preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction. Herein, placental morphology, signaling pathways, transcriptional mechanisms and epigenetic regulations, promoting self-renewal of human trophoblast stem cells and progenitors as well as their differentiation to specific lineages will be elucidated. The present CMLS Forum reviews will also focus on state-of-the art model systems of trophoblast research, such as human trophoblast stem cells, inducible trophoblast stem cells, trophoblast organoids, as well as trans-differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells and how these models could be used to study the placentation process in normal and pathological pregnancies. The review series will also include articles discussing relevant animal models as well as genomics and bioinformatics approaches to interrogate molecular processes during placentation and how those approaches could be utilized to unravel unknown aspects of human gestational diseases.

Editors

  • Martin Knöfler Martin Knöfler  &

    Martin Knöfler

    Martin Knöfler is Associate Professor at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria. He is PI and scientific coordinator of the Reproductive Biology Unit of the department and the current European Editor of the journal Placenta. His research interests include molecular mechanisms and signalling pathways controlling human placental development, trophoblast stem cell expansion and differentiation. His team also aims unravelling critical steps of endometrial evolution and decidualization, and first established 3D trophoblast organoids from the human placenta.

  • Soumen Paul Soumen Paul

    Soumen Paul

    Soumen Paul is a Professor and the Director of Center for Perinatal Research of the University of Kansas Medical Center. Research effort in his laboratory is focused to delineate transcriptional mechanisms that regulate early mammalian development and control self-renewal, differentiation, and function of embryonic and trophoblast stem cells in rodents and human. The long-term goal of Dr. Paul’s research is to understand how changes in transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms during pre- and peri-implantation stages of mammalian development lead to defective pregnancy and perinatal pathology.

Articles (8 in this collection)