Reut Avni1, Tal Raz1, Joel Garbow2, Michal Neeman1
1Biological Regulation, Weizmann Institute of Sceince, Rehovot, Israel; 2Biomedical MR Laboratory, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, United States
The study presented here examines whether natural occurring deaths, as well as genetic manipulation to create targeted defects in placental function (PKB/ Akt1-/- fetuses), affect placental perfusion and maternal blood volume in adjacent (normal) fetuses at late-gestation, as measured by in vivo Bi-Directional Arterial Spin Labeling (BD-ASL) MRI and ex vivo fluorescence microscopy, respectively. The ability to noninvasively determine fetal location along the uterine horn using BD-ASL method opens possibilities for determining and pursuing phenotypic alterations in genetic, as well as developmental, longitudinal studies. These data suggest in systems of multiple fetuses within one uterus there may exist communication mechanisms (e.g. hydrodynamic)