Fetal, maternal, and placental sources of serotonin and new implications for developmental programming of the brain

▶Serotonin signaling affects fetal brain development. ▶During an early phase of pregnancy, the placenta provides serotonin to the fetal brain. ▶Placenta-derived serotonin may be important for normal fetal brain development. ▶Results suggest new maternal-fetal-placental contributions to the fetal programming of adult mental disorders.