WASHINGTON (AP) – A research boom is underway to finally understand the body’s most mysterious organ – the placenta, that tissue that nourishes a fetus but often is dismissed as the “afterbirth.”
The stakes are high: When the placenta goes awry, it can lead to preterm birth, even infections like the Zika virus that somehow sneak past its protective barrier.
Doctors don’t have good ways to monitor the placenta during pregnancy, one goal of the National Institutes of Health’s $50 million Human Placenta Project.
NIH’s Dr. Catherine Spong says the placenta is taken for granted, even though problems can have lifelong implications for mother and baby.
Other scientists are experimenting with 3-D printers to model how the placenta forms, hoping to shed light on a potentially deadly blood pressure complication called preeclampsia.