Researchers have grown ‘mini placentas’ in the lab in a move that will help us understand pre-eclampsia and could help lead to treatments. The researchers used them to see how the placenta develops and interacts with the lining of the womb. A pregnancy requires the placenta to develop successfully in the first few weeks of gestation, during which it implants itself into the endometrium – the mucosal lining of the mother’s uterus. Prof Ashley Moffett, from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Pathology, said: “Most of the major disorders of pregnancy – pre-eclampsia, still birth, growth …
