Placental dysfunction is a major cause of fetal demise, fetal growth restriction, and preterm birth, as well as significant maternal morbidity and mortality. Infant survivors of placental dysfunction are at elevatedrisk for lifelong neuropsychiatric morbidity. However, despite the significant consequences of placental disease, there are no clinical tools to directly and non-invasively assess and measure placental function in pregnancy. In this work, we will review advanced MRI techniques applied to the study of the in vivo human placenta in order to better detail placental structure, architecture, and function. We will discuss the potential of these measures to serve as optimal biomarkers of placental dysfunction and review the evidence of these tools in the discrimination of health and disease in pregnancy. Efforts to advance our understanding of in vivo placental development are necessary if we are to optimize healthy pregnancy outcomes and prevent brain injury in successive generations. Current management of many high-risk pregnancies cannot address placental maldevelopment or injury, given the standard tools available to clinicians. Once accurate biomarkers of placental development and function are constructed, the subsequent steps will be to introduce maternal and fetal therapeutics targeting at optimizing placental function. Applying these biomarkers in future studies will allow for real-time assessments of safety and efficacy of novel interventions aimed at improving maternal-fetal well-being.

胎盘功能障碍是导致胎儿死亡、胎儿生长受限和早产以及显着的孕产妇发病率和死亡率的主要原因。胎盘功能障碍的婴儿幸存者终生神经精神疾病的风险较高。然而，尽管胎盘疾病会造成严重后果，但没有临床工具可以直接和非侵入性地评估和测量妊娠期胎盘功能。在这项工作中，我们将回顾应用于体内研究的先进 MRI 技术。人类胎盘，以便更好地详细说明胎盘的结构、结构和功能。我们将讨论这些措施作为胎盘功能障碍的最佳生物标志物的潜力，并审查这些工具在区分妊娠期健康和疾病方面的证据。努力提高我们对体内的理解如果我们要优化健康的怀孕结果并防止后代脑损伤，胎盘发育是必要的。鉴于临床医生可用的标准工具，目前对许多高危妊娠的管理无法解决胎盘发育不良或损伤问题。一旦构建了胎盘发育和功能的准确生物标志物，后续步骤将是引入以优化胎盘功能为目标的母胎治疗方法。在未来的研究中应用这些生物标志物将允许实时评估旨在改善母胎幸福的新型干预措施的安全性和有效性。