Trophoblast Research – serie

Interest in mechanisms of embryo implantation is increasing, particularly with the realization that failure of implantation after in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer places significant limits on the success of treatment. In addition, there is a need to provide hypotheses, and ultimately mechanisms, for the high rates of embryonic loss in women in the population at large. Traditionally, implantation research has concentrated on genetics and endocrinology without providing many therapeutic benefits. A new era is now beginning with the application of modem cellular and molecular approaches to the investigation of the relationship between trophoblast and endometrium. At the same time, older data can be reevaluated in the light of current research into cell­ cell and cell-matrix interactions. The feeling that new avenues of research are open was apparent when an international group of scientists came together at a workshop on "The Cell Biology of Trophoblast Invasion In Vivo and In Vitro" held during the XXIV Annual Meeting of the Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture Study Group (C.T.O.C.) at Heidelberg in 1986. What was unusual about this Conference was the interdisciplinary dialogue between implantation researchers and tumor biologists, highlighting aspects common to invasion of trophoblast and tumor cells.

The optimal function of the placenta and thus fetal well being largely depends upon the integrity of both the fetal and maternal circulations of the placenta. Intense basic research concerned with placental vascularization and blood flow has been performed for the past 30 years, beginning with the classical morphological descriptions of the placental vessels by Boe (1953) and Arts (1961), as well as with the radioangiographic studies of maternal placental circulation in the human by Borell (1958) and in the rhesus monkey by Ramsey (1962). The scientific framework presented by these investigators has been filled and completed by numerous investigators, leading to more morphological details, functional considerations, and pathological understanding. For an extended period of time, this research has been of primarily academic interest by increasing our insights into one important system of the placenta, yet having nearly no practical importance. Recently, this situation has changed dramatically: in vitro studies of the isolated, dually perfused human placenta and in vivo studies of placental circulation for diagnostic purposes have raised an enormous interest in basic research data. New methods like Doppler Ultrasound and NMR became available. These technics have enabled the obstetrician to study fetal and placental hemodynamics in vivo. Meanwhile, such methods are becoming incorporated into the daily obstetrical routine, to some degree without an adequate background knowledge of placental vascularization and blood flow, since such experience is currently available to only a small group of experts.

Each year since 1961, the Rochester Trophoblast Conference has grown in the diversity of its approaches to trophoblast research. At the Ninth Conference, Professors Klopper, Villee and Winick molded the conference with their state of the art addresses on Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition of the Trophoblast. The Conference was favored with a multitude of creative studies and with warm, sunny, autumn weather to discuss these results. In October of 1982, one hundred and five investigators from 12 countries and 21 states discussed 42 different presentations at the Holiday Inn in Rochester, New York. The Ninth Conference introduced workshops on Metabolism, Nutrition, Endocrinology and Trophoblastic Neoplasia. The chairmen of these workshops were: Metabolism -Villee and Miller; Nutrition - Winick and Maulik; Endocrinology - Klopper and Muechler; and Trophoblastic Neoplasia -Szulman and Helmkamp. These two-hour, intimate discussion groups were well-received by all who attended. As with the Eighth Conference, the University of Rochester will no longer produce a transcript of the Conference. Beginning with the Ninth Conference, Plenum Press in association with the University, will publish a peer-reviewed series entitled Trophoblast Research. An international editorial advisory board has been named to assure the direction of the series. The editorial board and the organizing committee will develop the future meetings of the Rochester Trophoblast Conference. Trophoblast Research will be published as single bound volumes with original contributions and editorial reports of presentations from the Conference.