Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
No, we’re not talking about a tortilla chip, and placenta nachos are definitely not Taco Bell’s newest creation.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have taken “organ-on-a-chip” research into the realm of reproduction, developing a lab-grown placenta model that can be used to study the fetomaternal tissue structure and the role that it plays in pregnancy.
Writing in the Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, the NIH scientists and a team of interdisciplinary experts from the US and South Korea explained that their “placenta-on-a-chip” device was designed to imitate the structure and function and an actual placenta on a small scale. It was also designed to model the process through which nutrients are transferred from mother to fetus.
Like other organ-on-a-chip technologies, this prototype mock-placenta is designed to accelerate biomedical advances. Using this device could help experts address questions that cannot be answered using current placenta model systems, and enable the researchers to gain new insight on pregnancy and its potential complications.
The placenta, as most people know, is a temporary organ developed during pregnancy that acts as the primary interface between mother and fetus, the NIH explained. Not only does it control the flow of nutrients and oxygen to the fetus, it helps move waste products away and attempts to prevent bacteria, viruses, and other harmful agents from reaching the unborn child.
Understanding how the placenta performs its functions
Scientists are attempting to find out just how the placenta manages to control all of this traffic, allowing some substances to make their way to the fetus while blocking others to maintain the health of both the child and its mother. The information they gain using this model could help doctors and hospitals better gauge placental health and improve pregnancy outcomes.
Studying an actual human placenta is difficult, time-consuming, and could put the fetus at risk. Most research on placental transport have relied primarily on animal models and lab-grown human cells, and while these techniques have proven helpful, there are limits to how well they can simulate actual human physiological processes.
This new placenta-on-a-chip technology helps address those shortcomings by using human cells in a structure closer in nature to the placenta’s actual maternal-fetal barrier. It features two small chambers, one filled with maternal cells derived from a delivered placenta, and one with fetal cells derived from an umbilical cord, separated by semi-permeable membrane.
Once the structure of the placenta-on-a-chip was completed, the study authors tested its function by evaluating the transfer of glucose from the maternal compartment to the fetal one. They were successful in duplicating the process that happens naturally, and they believe that the device may allow them to conduct more efficient, less costly experiments in the future.
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