NIEHS/EPA Children's Centers 2015 Webinar: The Role of the Placenta in Children’s Development

Join us for this month's webinar. The webinar features presentations and interactive discussions including recent findings and new developments in children's environmental health.

Topic: The Role of the Placenta in Children’s Development

Featured Speakers:

Summary: The complex cellular architecture at the boundary between the placenta and uterus is governed, in large part, by the cytotrophoblast (CTB) differentiation pathway that enables invasion, in which placental cells emigrate from anchoring villi and join cell columns that serve as conduits to the uterine wall. CTBs invade nearly the entirety of the uterus. The cells also remodel the uterine circulation. Our group has developed cell culture models that enable in vitro analyses of CTB differentiation/invasion. Currently, we are using -omic approaches to analyze the effects of environmental chemicals on this process, focusing on polybrominated diphenyl ether-47 (PBDE-47), a flame retardant, and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a repellent.

Summary: In this presentation, Dr. Marsit will describe the important role that genomic imprinting plays in proper fetal and placental development, and describe preliminary studies linking variation in the expression of imprinted genes to environmental trace metal exposures and newborn health outcomes.

Summary: Phthalates and bisphenol-a (BPA) are endocrine disrupting compounds with widespread exposure that have been linked to adverse birth outcomes and developmental effects. We hypothesized that these associations may be mediated in part through altered placental development and function consequent to exposure. To investigate this question, we examined associations between plasma biomarkers of angiogenesis and urinary biomarkers of exposure to phthalates and bisphenol-a (BPA) measured at repeated time points across pregnancy.

Nica Louie (louie.nica@epa.gov); 703-347-8125