WASHINGTON | Researchers have created a cellular model of the human placenta to help uncover how infections, from toxoplasmosis to the Zika virus, may pass from a mother to her unborn child. The ...

The discovery of a gene essential to early embryonic development sheds light on the preliminary stages of human placenta formation. A team led by scientists from the University of California San Diego ...

In the human placenta, there are placental villi, and the surface of the villi consists of syncytiotrophoblast, also called barrier cells, that serve as the main barrier against foreign substances.