Measurement of mitochondrial respiration in trophoblast culture

Pregnancy is a state of oxidative stress, which becomes exaggerated under pathological conditions, such as preeclampsia, IUGR, diabetes and obesity, where placental mitochondria] dysfunction is observed. The majority of investigations utilize isolated mitochondria when measuring mitochondrial activity in placenta. However, this does not provide a complete physiological readout of mitochondrial function. This technical note describes a method to measure respiratory function in intact primary syncytiotrophoblast from human term placenta. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.