Placental microcirculation may influence malaria in pregnancy

A study published in the latest issue of the scientific journal PLOS Pathogen provides new clues about malaria parasite infection during pregnancy. The research team led by Carlos Penha-Gonçalves from the Disease Genetics Group at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (IGC) observed, for the first time, blood flow in the placenta of a live mouse.

The study, funded by FCT, shows how blood circulation in the placenta can influence local infection caused by the malaria parasite, which can lead to miscarriages, stillbirths, prematurity, delayed uterine growth, and low birth weight.

In vivo observation revealed that blood circulation in the placenta is not homogeneous, with areas of higher and lower blood flow, in which the behavior of the malaria parasite differs: there is a greater accumulation of parasites in regions with low blood flow. In these regions, the cells of the placenta and the mouse's immune system attack the infected red blood cells, attempting to eliminate the parasite and triggering inflammatory reactions that cause the symptoms of the disease. Reproducing this study in the human placenta would, according to Carlos Penha-Gonçalves, be “(...) interesting (...), considering that microcirculation in the human placenta is quite different.”