Hormonal and histiometric correlations in chronic placental insufficiency
Among clinical indications of the severity of chronic placental insufficiency (CPI) changes of the levels of gestagenic hormones in the blood of pregnant women are notable for their diagnostic universality and informational value. It was found that the most informative morphological criterion of hormonal activity of the placenta is the degree of hyperemia of terminal villi that has a high correlation with the level of estrogens and a selectively high correlation with progesterone, reflecting the general state of circulatory-metabolic reactions of the fetoplacental complex, in which gestagens play the role of biochemical precursors for synthesis of more complex steroid hormones. The structural specificity of chorionic syncytium in the terminal portion of the villous tree is also noted for certain informativity, since according to available ultrahistochemical findings the synthesis of estrogens takes place there, which is reflected in their high interrelation. The absence of correlation between the indices of the placental morphohysterogram and the level of chorionic gonadotropin and placental lactogen produced in the extravillous trophoblast of the placenta and the parietal trophoblast of fetal membranes might be accounted for by the presence of the paraplacental route of mother-fetus metabolism activated in CPI.