During pregnancy, oxygen diffuses from maternal to fetal blood through villous trees in the placenta. In this paper, we simulate blood flow and oxygen transfer in feto-placental capillaries by converting three-dimensional representations of villous and capillary surfaces, reconstructed from confocal laser scanning microscopy, to finite-element meshes, and calculating values of vascular flow resistance and total oxygen transfer. The relationship between the total oxygen transfer rate and the pressure drop through the capillary is shown to be captured across a wide range of pressure drops by physical scaling laws and an upper bound on the oxygen transfer rate. A regression equation is introduced that can be used to estimate the oxygen transfer in a capillary using the vascular resistance. Two techniques for quantifying the effects of statistical variability, experimental uncertainty and pathological placental structure on the calculated properties are then introduced. First, scaling arguments are used to quantify the sensitivity of the model to uncertainties in the geometry and the parameters. Second, the effects of localized dilations in fetal capillaries are investigated using an idealized axisymmetric model, to quantify the possible effect of pathological placental structure on oxygen transfer. The model predicts how, for a fixed pressure drop through a capillary, oxygen transfer is maximized by an optimal width of the dilation. The results could explain the prevalence of fetal hypoxia in cases of delayed villous maturation, a pathology characterized by a lack of the vasculo-syncytial membranes often seen in conjunction with localized capillary dilations.

• MeSH
• Models, Biological * MeSH
• Chorionic Villi embryology   MeSH
• Diffusion MeSH
• Capillaries metabolism   physiology   MeSH
• Blood Circulation * MeSH
• Oxygen metabolism   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Placenta blood supply   MeSH
• Fetus blood supply   MeSH
• Pregnancy MeSH
• Imaging, Three-Dimensional * MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Pregnancy MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Oxygen MeSH