In an opinion article published September 18 in Trends in Molecular Medicine , physician-scientists argue that with most placentas discarded after birth, placental pathology is underutilized clinically, should be a routine part of obstetric and neonatal care, and also deserves more research attention. "Placentas should not be considered a waste tissue," says senior author Mana Parast, MD, Ph.D.
, professor of pathology at University of California San Diego School of Medicine. "They can teach us a lot about not just what went wrong in a pregnancy , but also inform about subsequent pregnancies for the health of the pregnant person and baby." The placenta is critical for the exchange of nutrients and waste products between the developing offspring and the pregnant person.
If the placenta becomes diseased, it can impact the parent and offspring, both during pregnancy and later in life. At its most severe, placental pathology can cause stillbirths, and this is the medical scenario in which placentas are most often examined clinically. However, different types of placental pathology are also associated with small birth size and neurological issues in infants, and with hypertension (preeclampsia) and other cardiovascular issues in the parent.
"Placental pathology can potentially identify not just the cause of an adverse outcome in the baby, but also insight into why something happened in the mom, and what that means for their health in the future," says Parast, perinatal pathologist .