Date of Award:

8-2026

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Veterinary Clinical and Life Science Department

Committee Chair(s)

Heloisa M. Rutigliano

Committee

Heloisa M. Rutigliano

Committee

Christopher J. Davies

Committee

Irina A. Polejaeva

Abstract

Reproductive loss is a major economic and sustainability issue in cattle operations, but mechanisms of loss are not well understood. This thesis covers past research on key events of early cattle pregnancy, fetal-maternal communication, and methods of studying mechanisms of early pregnancy and placental function. Current models to study placental biology are limited in their accuracy. An alternative method is the study of trophoblast organoids in a 3D culture system. Trophoblasts are the primary cell type of the placenta, while organoids are a multi-cell structure which closely resembles placental tissue in a laboratory setting. Our research focuses on the development and characterization of such a culture system. Normal and abortion-prone pregnancies were established and collected at Days 15 and 25 of gestation. It was found that all collections formed cell cultures that closely resembled fresh placental biology, are capable of being used in long-term studies, and are able to produce extracellular vesicles. Extracellular vesicles are small structures which are used in cell-cell communication and carry cargo which reflects the quality of the pregnancy. The cargo of extracellular vesicles generated by normal and abortion-prone trophoblast organoid cultures is currently being characterized. The development and characterization of a trophoblast organoid system and the extracellular vesicles which it generates will allow for better understanding of early pregnancy loss in cattle and potential mechanisms for increasing reproductive performance.

Checksum

930cf90bf4aa4115c7379bcb2cc80248

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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