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. 2021 Jul 1;385(1):87-89.
doi: 10.1056/NEJMcibr2106321.

The Placenta - Fast, Loose, and in Control

Joseph F Costello  1 , Susan J Fisher  1
Affiliations

The Placenta - Fast, Loose, and in Control

Joseph F Costello et al. N Engl J Med. .
No abstract available

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Accrual of Somatic Variants in Context.
A bulk piece of normal human tissue from an adult contains many tiny clonal expansions (Panel A) — some with cancer driver mutations — that are detectable only with very sensitive methods. Coorens et al. recently described large monoclonal lineages — easily detectable on whole-genome sequencing of specimens obtained from placental biopsies — with a mutation burden similar to that found in tumors in children but lacking in cancer driver mutations. Accordingly, every placental-biopsy specimen that the researchers examined had both mutations that were shared with the other specimens and mutations that were specific to that specimen (so-called private mutations) and were not present in the fetal tissues (Panel B). The earliest opportunity for the segregation of cells of placental lineages from those of fetal lineage is within the first few cell divisions of the embryo. In some cases, the data described by Coorens et al. suggest that this segregation may have been nearly complete.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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