The Placenta and Neurodisability: (169 Clinics in Developmental Medicine)

This book is the first to study the complex interactions between altered placental function and neurodisability. It provides detailed accounts of placental lesions that affect normal structure and function; the processes that lead to brain injury; and, the extent to which such early affects on brain development lead to disability in later childhood. Other chapters consider specific transporter systems located in the placental syncytiotrophoblast that protect the fetus from drugs and xenobiotics in the maternal circulation; animal models used to study causes of fetal brain damage; and, the interactions between fetal genes and the uterine environment that predispose to the development of schizophrenia in adult life. The authors' conclusions are far reaching, with medical, ethical and economic implications. Any definitive intervention to reduce the impact of impaired placental function on neurodisability would have a massive impact.

Table of Contents:
Author's Appointments; Foreword; Preface; 1. The placenta and neurological outcome in the child; 2. Deficient trophoblast invasion, placental and fetal compromise; 3. The materno-fetal inflammatory response; 4. Cytokines, growth factors, placental insufficiency and infection; 5. Placental lesions and neurological outcome; 6. Placental pathology, intrauterine growth restriction and subsequent child development; 7. MDR-1 P-Glycoprotein in the placenta: a protective role in neurodepment; 8. In utero imaging of the placenta; 9. Animal models of fetal growth restriction and cerebral compromise; 10. Placental programming leading to mental ill-health: fetal growth and schizophrenia; 11. Conclusions- the placenta and neurodisability.; Index.

About the Author :
Colin Sibley is Professor of Child Health and Physiology in the Maternal and Fetal Health Research Group of the Research School of Clinical and Laboratory Sciences and Director of the Tommy's [Lets Talk Baby] Charity, Maternal and Fetal Health Research Centre (MFHRC) in Manchester, UK. His major interests are in the mechanisms and control of solute transfer across the placenta during normal and abnormal pregnancy. Philip Baker is Director of Manchester's National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre and Honorary Professor of Maternal and Fetal Health. His research interests include understanding the causes of pre-eclampsia and other pregnancy complications like miscarriage, preterm labour, fetal growth restriction and stillbirth.