A. Syncytiotrophoblast was specifically captured from cryosections of placental tissue using laser capture microdissection and its transcription profile was determined by quantitative real time RT-PCR normalised to the expression of a placental housekeeping gene. B. Controls (open bars, n=6), malaria cases without intervillositis (light grey bars, n=7) and cases with monocyte infiltrates (dark grey bars, n=10) were compared. C. Participants with normal birth weight (NBW, open bars, n=21) and LBW cases (grey bars, n=2) had similar transcription profiles. P>.05 Mann-Whitney’s test. Bars represent median, 25th and 75th percentiles and the whiskers are 5th and 95th percentiles. Flt-1: VEGF receptor 1; HIF: Hypoxia-inducible factor; PlGF: Placental growth factor; VEGF: Vascular endothelial growth factor; sFlt-1: soluble Flt-1; Intervill.: intervillositis.