EVENT: Raine Lecture - Professor Emeritus Henning Schneider

Following retirement from his academic position as Director of the Maternity Hospital at the Insel Spital in Berne, Professor Henning Schneider has remained active in the field of placental research. This activity is based on international collaborations developed over several years, and involve Dr Karen May and Professor Siegmund (University of Berne) Professor Marek Zygmunt, (University of Greifswald), Professor Christoph King (Case Western Reserve University Medical Center), Professor Stefan Hansson (University of Lund), and Professor Seth Guller (Yale University).

Lecture summary: In the dual ex vivo perfusion of an isolated human placental cotyledon it takes on average 20–30 minutes to set up stable perfusion circuits for the maternal and fetal vascular compartments. In vivo placental tissue of all species maintains a highly active metabolism and it continues to puzzle investigators how this tissue can survive 30 minutes of ischemia with more or less complete anoxia following expulsion of the organ from the uterus without undergoing severe damage.