The placenta is a vital fetal endocrine organ that plays an important role in gas, nutrient, and hormone shuttling between maternal and fetal sides, but much is unknown about the placental functions due to logistical, ethical, and technical challenges in investigating this critical human organ. In particular, the xenobiotic and steroid disposition pathways of human placenta and their quantitative significance are not well characterized. Understanding the xenobiotic and steroid disposition pathways is key to mitigating the risks associated with xenobiotic exposure during pregnancy and understanding steroidal mechanisms that can be influenced by xenobiotics. While transcriptomics and targeted proteomics studies have provided some information on placental function, limited data are available on quantitative global proteomics of placenta and placental cells lines. Thus, utilizing global quantitative proteomics, we aim to i) characterize archived human placental tissue and ii) elucidate the resemblance of in vitro placental models to the placenta in terms of the steroid and xenobiotic pathways to better understand mechanisms of xenobiotic disposition and toxicity
