We have a new paper out this week - a study led by Cindy McMillen. The goal of the study was two-fold. First, do sheep and human placenta differ in their overall permissivity to RVFV infection (and could this explain the seeming discrepancy between the frequency of fetal infections in the two species)? Secondly, are live-attenuated strains (some of which are the basis for human/veterinary vaccines) still able to infect placenta from either species (and could this provide an indicator of potential safety)?
Direct comparisons between human and sheep placenta have not really been done before, at least in a systematic fashion. So Cindy set out to collect placenta from local farms and the local women’s hospital.
These twins with their mama are part of this study
Devin with placenta collection cooler
Sheep placenta prior to dissection
Nobody really wants to come into our lab due to this type of stuff
Dissected and plated villi
Here’s the papa
Dyanmic placenta duo
This is actually a cow placenta (not featured in the current manuscript)
twinsies
Sheep villi before dissection
Find the full paper here: Vaccine strains of Rift Valley fever virus exhibit attenuation at the maternal-fetal placental interface
I have a twitter thread on this here where I discuss our findings. Check out the whole paper. We also have some fantastic science art done by Hayley Nordstrom.
