Placental Villous Explant Culture 2.0: Flow Culture Allows Studies Closer to the In Vivo Situation
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Congratulation to the authors for this excellent, very exciting manuscript presenting a new investigation of 'Placental villous explant culture 2.0: Flow culture allows studies closer to the in vitro situation'.
I completely agree with the authors that this experimental set up 'in flow' is a lightning approach to imitate placental villi exposed to maternal, and feto-maternal environment then so far known static trials.
This will contribute to a better understanding and interpreting of morphologically seen trophoblastic, stromal and fetal vessel changes, which then will hopefully contribute to optimize pathological criteria for the diagnoses of e.g. fetal and maternal vascular malperfusion in term placentas.
Recommendation: please magnificate the histological pictures.
Reviewer 2 Report
The current study by Kupper et al presents an important and more effective method of placental villous explant culture. The authors showed that the commonly used static placental explant culture causes disintegration of placental villous morphology. This placental ultrastructure is protected if the long-term (48h) culture is done under the flow condition. This method mimics the in vivo situation of the blood flow between the mother and the placenta.
The study is planned and executed well with proper discussion and introduction. No specific concerns were noted.
