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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Nov 7.
Published in final edited form as: Dev Biol. 2011 Jan 14;351(2):277–286. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2011.01.008

Fig. 5.

Fig. 5

Thickening of the giant cell layer in maternal Del7AI heterozygotes. Overall morphology of wild type and Del7AI/+ placentae at E15.5 as revealed by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining (A–B) and DAPI staining (C). Whereas the giant cell layer is hard to detect at lower magnification in wild type placentae (A), a thick layer is clearly visible in the mutants (arrowheads). At higher magnification, the single cell layer seen in wild type placentae (dotted line) is replaced by a 4 to 6 cell layer in the mutants (B). Also noticeable is the absence of clear spongiotrophoblast and trophoblast glycogen cells in proximity of the giant cell layer in the mutants. (C) DAPI staining readily identifies the giant polyploid nuclei of the cells stacked at the giant cell layer in the mutants. Scale bar: 500 μm (A); 100 μm (B–C). d: decidua; TGC: parietal trophoblast giant cells; SpT: spongiotrophoblast; GlyT: trophoblast glycogen cells; lab: labyrinth layer.