Branching morphogenesis during development of placental villi.

The placenta forms a complex interface between the mother and fetus during development that is designed for efficient nutrient exchange. A large surface area is created by extensive branching morphogenesis of the trophoblast-derived epithelium to create a villous network, called the labyrinth in rodents. These villi are subsequently vascularized with an elaborate capillary network. Morphogenesis begins with selection of a subset of trophoblast cells in the basal layer of the chorion that express the Gcm1 transcription factor. These cells leave the cell cycle and undergo cell shape changes that initiate a process of involution to create primary villi into which fetal blood vessels grow. Much less is known about the regulation of subsequent events in branching, certainly compared with other organs. However, over 60 different mouse mutants have defects during later labyrinth development. Some of these mutant genes encode components of signaling pathways such as the fibroblast growth factor and Wnt pathways that play evolutionarily conserved roles in other branched organs, These mutants represent a still largely untapped resource as most of them have not been studied in detail in relation to placental morphogenesis.