OPTIMAL ENVIRONMENT FOR ORGANOGENESIS

Recent animal studies suggest that the optimal conditions for early embryonic
development are characterized by low oxygen tensions. In in vitro conditions, early
embryos have been found to exhibit increased glycogen metabolism and maximum
survival rates when oxygen tension was maintained between 2.5 and 5%. This unusual
environment is thought to be peculiarly suited to organ formation. Embryonic
haemoglobin which last for the first eight weeks of gestation are able to combine with
oxygen at the very low tension found in interstitial fluids. In keeping with these result,
oxygen tension in the surrounding trophoblast has also been found to be lower than
that in the underlying endometrium during the first 12 weeks of gestation.
These findings have led to suggestions that the early embryo derives its external
nutritional support from the secretory products of epithelial glands and decidual cells.
Developments within the endometrium fully complement this notion. From the moment
of implantation, glandular cells secrete rapidly increasing amounts of glycoproteins that
promote cell growth and organ differentiation. At the same time the underlying decidua
undergoes considerable reorganization, as it forms an array of matrix proteins and
differentiated secretory cells that provide growth-promoting factors for the embryo and
immunoprotection for trophoblast infiltration.
Evidence suggesting that the early embryo utilizes local nutrients from the
endometrium has also been supported by a number of studies on the characteristic
features of early trophoblast infiltration. Ultrasound images using a vaginal probe have
been obtained for chorionic villous sampling during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
These pictures have demonstrated that over this period of organ formation, trophoblast
infiltration forms a thick undulating layer of actively growing cells called the
cytotrophoblastic shell, with primitive villi that sprout extravillious columns of
cytotrophoblast cells on the maternal surface. Many of these enter and plug the walls of
spiral arterioles while others remain mobile around the intervillous spaces
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