The placenta’s invasion of the uterus holds clues to cancer resistance
To obtain nutrients for a growing fetus, a placenta embeds itself into the uterus—an “invasion” that resembles the way a tumor takes over healthy tissue. Now researchers have identified genes that help to regulate placental embedding and may prove instructive in developing anticancer drugs, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
In 2019 cellular biologists Günter Wagner of Yale University and Kshitiz of the University of Connecticut Health found that this cellular resistance extends beyond the uterus. They observed a direct correlation between how deeply a species' placenta embedded and the rate of tumors that spread beyond their primary site in that species' body.
“A mutation that helps the uterus keep the placenta out also [could affect] the biology of cancer in, say, the skin,” Wagner says.