Placenta Structural Changes in Heavy Smoker Mothers: A Stereological Aspect

Background: Smoking during pregnancy is able to alter structure and function of placenta. In the present study, quantitative changes of placenta in smoker mothers were investigated compared to healthy controls by Cavalieri point counting method. Methods: Twenty placentas from heavy smoker mothers and non-smoker controls (n=10 in eachgroup) were selected. Systematic uniform random sampling (SURS) was used for sample selection and tissue sectioning. Quantitative parameters of the placenta in the selected sections was estimated after Masson trichrome staining. Differences between the two groups were determined by the Mann Whitney-U test and the significance level was set at P<0.05. Results: Results showed that there was a significant difference in the placental weight, total volume of placenta, intervillous space, fibrin, andsyncytiotrophoblast between the heavy smoker group and the control group (P<0.05). The difference in the volume density of fibrin and blood vessels between the smoker and control groups was statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusions: Our finding suggested that quantitative parameters of placenta significantly changed in placentas from smoker group compared to controls. These changes can be associated probably with pregnancy complications in smoker mothers and may affect the development and survival of the fetus and even its future life.

کلیدواژه ها:

Placenta ، Pregnancy complications ، Smoking ، Trophoblast