IMMUNOHISTOLOGICAL EXAMINATION ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF COLLAGEN TYPE-I, TYPE-III, TYPE-IV AND TYPE-V IN BOVINE POST-PARTUM PLACENTOMES

This paper describes the in situ presence and distribution of collagen types I, III, IV and V in the bovine placenta. The objective was to d etermine whether there are qualitative and/or quantitative differences in the collagen content of placentomes originating from cows with ret ained placenta and cows with normal discharge of the placenta. Twelve h post partum discharge of the placenta or the incidence of retained p lacenta was monitored. From 57 cows one placentome per cow was collect ed within 1 h post partum. The cows were divided into three groups: re tained placenta after caesarean section (Group 1), retained placenta a fter spontaneous calving (Group 2) and normal discharge of placenta wi thin 12 h post partum after spontaneous calving (Group 3). A pilot stu dy was conducted to establish the technique of collecting the placento mes and to verify the applied immunohistological methods used in this work. In the following study, 32 placentomes were used to determine th e amount of collagen (types I, III, IV and V) with qualitative and sem i-quantitative methods using immunohistochemical techniques. Collagen types I, III, IV and V were found in large quantities in the maternal tissue. In the fetal connective tissue the amount of these collagen ty pes was smaller. In the placentomes of the three groups, no qualitativ e or quantitative differences could be detected.