Diabetic placentae: Studies of the battlefield after the war

Ca, Labarrere; Wp, Faulk

doi:10.1002/dmr.5610070405

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 67 publications

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“…It is not surprising, therefore, that a belligerent terminology was often used for describing invasive events in the placental bed. This is exemplified by the statement that "like schoolboys studying the battlefield at Waterloo, we study the placenta for artefacts of the maternotrophoblastic encounter" (8). Within the same context, it was tempting to put pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia in a similar light, as a battle that got out of hand, leading to an 'overkill' of the invasive fetal trophoblast.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Fetal-Maternal Conflict, Trophoblast Invasion, Preeclampsia, and the Red Queen

Pijnenborg

Vercruysse

Hanssens

2008

Hypertension in Pregnancy

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The much publicized conflict hypothesis for understanding fetal-maternal interaction during pregnancy often invokes a 'battle' metaphor, rather than a well orchestrated interplay occurring as a series of well controlled moves and counter-moves as happens in a game of chess. Such stepwise interaction is particularly obvious in the spiral artery remodelling process, and it would be interesting to trace the history of the successive steps in histological adaptation throughout primate phylogeny. The restricted invasion observed in a few species on a 'lower' evolutionary scale suggests a tendency of progressive deeper invasion during primate evolution. Unfortunately, our knowledge of invasive processes in the placental bed in nonhuman primates is highly inadequate. A paradigm underscoring the stepwise interaction between mother and fetus may be provided by the Red Queen hypothesis, which is a useful model to explain co-evolutionary processes between different species. The apparent association between preeclampsia and restricted endovascular trophoblast invasion, combined with the absence of the disease in primate species showing shallow invasion, suggests that preeclampsia may result from a failure in one or more interactive steps necessary for deeper invasion. Evidence for a genetic component invokes the puzzling question as to why "preeclampsia genes" are not eliminated from human populations. As in other fields of medicine, a proper understanding of Darwinian selection processes may throw some light on the causes of preeclampsia.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%