Innumoelectron microscopy of the human chorionic villus in search of blood group A and B antigens.

The chorionic villi of placentas, 10 to 40 weeks of gestation, were examined for A and B blood group antigens with an immunoferritin technique. No specific ferritin attachment was shown on the plasma membrane of the villous trophoblasts. Furthermore, after trophoblast cell-surface mucosubstances (perhaps the barrier of the placental antigenicity, according to some authors) were digested with several enzymes, such as neuraminidase, hyaluronidase, chondroitinase ABC, pepsin, trypsin, and pronase, no ferritin tagging was observed on the plasma membrane of the villous trophoblasts. We have concluded that our failure to detect the A and B blood group antigens was not due to the masking of antigens by mucosubstance coating the trophoblasts, but was due to the intrinsic deficit of those antigens in the plasma membrane of the human trophoblasts.