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The Placenta from Development to Disease, Helen H. Kay, D. Michael Nelson, and Yuping Wang. Wiley-Blackwell, West Sussex, United Kingdom, 2011, 346 pp., hardcover.
This text, written by over 70 different authors, is composed of 43 concise chapters, nicely organized into 6 sections that address, as the title suggests, the placenta from development to disease.
In the 1st section of the book, the concept of fetal origins of adult disease is introduced, and its relevance to fetal and maternal health is discussed in 2 short chapters. The 2nd section, entitled ''Placental Development, Physiology, and Immunology,'' is composed of 13 chapters, some of them excellent, on placental immunology, placental hypoxia, placental metabolism, and placental hormonal production. This section serves as an introduction to placental anatomy and function and is especially useful for the student who is new to the placenta. In the 3rd section, the gross, microscopic, and imaging techniques used to examine the placenta are discussed. This section contains 2 chapters,...