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. 2001 Jul;159(1):93–108. doi: 10.1016/S0002-9440(10)61677-X

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Diagram (A) and histological section (B) of an anchoring chorionic villus at the fetal-maternal interface at the beginning of the second trimester of pregnancy (15 weeks of gestation). A: The anchoring villus (AV) functions as a bridge between the fetal and maternal compartments of the human placenta. Both AV and floating villi (FV) are covered with syncytiotrophoblasts (STB), contain fetal blood vessels (FBV), and are bathed by maternal blood in the intervillous space (IVS). CTBs in AV form cell columns (CC) that attach the fetal-placental unit to the uterine wall (UW). CTBs then invade decidua, myometrium, and uterine blood vessels (iCTB). Long arrow denotes direction of CTB migration/invasion. B: A histological section of the fetal-maternal interface diagrammed in (A) was stained with anti-cytokeratin (CK) to image all of the trophoblast populations. vCTB; villous CTB.