The bovine placenta before and after birth: placental development and function in health and disease

Abstract

This paper reviews bovine placental development, anatomy (microscopic and gross), nomenclature and classification. The paper focuses on the biology of those specialized cells that arise from the outermost layer of very early embryos, the trophoblast cells, and on placental macrophages, cells that play a key role in fetal/placental defense. Data is presented from an immunohistochemical quantitative study that characterizes the ontogeny of placental macrophages using placental tissues from 21 cows (sampled from 4 months of pregnancy through the post partum period). Understanding of bovine placental development is essential for veterinarians, pathologists, diagnosticians and researchers. Lesions of diagnostic significance can be recognized for many economically important infectious abortifacient diseases, and there is growing evidence that pregnancy failure of cloned calves is due in part to unexplained placental failure. Placentology and placental pathology are becoming of increasing importance.