We are trying to discover why some pregnant women develop preeclampsia and others don't. This pregnancy-specific syndrome causes hypertension and proteinuria of the mother and may cause death of mother and child. With our translational research, we hope to identify the placental causes leading to the maternal symptoms.
Recently, single-cell RNA sequencing approaches have been used to identify differences between healthy and pre-eclamptic placentas. Now comes the time to link this data with the original tissues. This is why we are using spatial histology and institute sequencing to identify changes on the single-cell level.
The individual complexity of the geometric structure of the placenta presents a challenge for determining the exact flow velocity and shear stress for a given placental villus. With the use of this flow culture system, the importance of shear force on the biological functions of placental tissues can be addressed and investigated.
