Immunohistochemical criteria of the functional placental maturity estimation

Placental tissue produces more than 100 biologically active molecules: hormones, cytokines, growth factors, enzymes, and others. The correlations between pregnant women age and expression of melatonin, prolactin, CD34, NO—synthase, HLA—DR, CD35, Mcl—1, p53 expression in villous chorion of human mature placenta have been shown. Computer image analysis is not recognized the differences in optical density and expression square values of above immunohistochemical markers either in mature and overmature pregnancy. These data demonstrate high functional activity of overmature placenta. Thus, it may be postulated that the «aging» of placenta is not connected with pregnancy duration but it is determined by the biological age of pregnant women.