Placenta-On-Chip Technology Enables Study of Pregnancy Drug Safety

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Highlights:

• Placenta-On-Chip devices mimic the placenta's structure & functions, promising safer drug evaluations for pregnant women
• Traditional animal studies don't offer conclusive insights into drug safety during pregnancy due to placental differences
• IIT Bombay's interdisciplinary collaboration heralds a new era in placental research, with devices replicating various pregnancy stages

A variety of devices that imitate the placenta at various stages of pregnancy can aid in drug development, study the toxicity of substances such as caffeine, and understand the impact of preeclampsia and diabetes mellitus during pregnancy.

Medication Safety During Pregnancy

While the placenta generally protects the developing infant from potentially harmful medications and toxins during pregnancy, some substances may manage to pass through this barrier and potentially harm the baby in the womb.

‘Introducing Placenta-On-Chip: A groundbreaking solution to test pregnancy drug safety! Say goodbye to unreliable animal studies. #PlacentaTech #PregnancySafety’

As a result, most drugs are not offered to pregnant women, and they continue to suffer. It is difficult to determine which medications can be administered during pregnancy that will not pass the placenta.

Animal research (primarily on mice) can not provide conclusive answers since human and mouse placentas differ. As a result, the number of drugs deemed safe for pregnant women is minimal, and labeling new medicines as "pregnancy safe" is difficult.

There are few current approaches for researching the placenta and its conditions, and they use systems that do not mimic the real placenta. Some of these require time-consuming classical cell culture procedures on tissue culture plates or mouse sacrifice. As a result, a better model that replicates the human placental structure and functions is necessary.

Placenta in a Lab Dish

Researchers at IIT Bombay and ICMR-NIRRCH-, Mumbai, led by Prof. Abhijit Majumder, Prof. Debjani Paul, and Dr. Deepak Modi, have created placenta-on-a-chip (POC) devices to bridge this gap (). They created an environment that simulates the basic organ structure and functions of the placenta using microfluidic technology, which can integrate processes. While a few placenta-on-chip devices exist, their utility in assessing medication safety under these settings is limited because they do not imitate various phases of pregnancy.

The team's placenta in a lab dish allows different cells to communicate with each other, combine mechanical features, and replicate blood flow, nearly mimicking the in-vivo state. Among the different POC versions available, these devices are more suited for exploring placental development as well as disorders induced by placental abnormalities. In addition, for personalised medicine, patient-specific sample screening will be possible.

Bridging Engineering and Medicine: Creation of Placenta-On-Chip Devices

Professor Majumdar's knowledge in creating microfluidic devices and Dr Modi's expertise in understanding the placenta were used to develop the solution.

Prof. Majumder's team designed and built the gadgets at IIT-Bombay with help from IMPRINT II C of the Science, Engineering, and Research Board (SERB). They were created utilizing advanced processes like photolithography, soft lithography, and handcrafted designs created with biopsy punches. Dr. Modi's team produced distinct cells seen in the placenta in these devices in the same way they are observed in the real placenta.

Several devices were created as a result of this partnership, each one dedicated to a different study, such as embryo implantation, placental barrier function, placental cell migration, medication testing, and so on. Both labs rigorously evaluated if the gadgets accomplish what a placenta is intended to do. The gadgets are now ready for testing various pharmaceuticals and medicines for use in the pharmaceutical business.

Placenta-On-Chip Breakthrough

The placenta-on-chip technology will allow researchers and healthcare providers to observe, evaluate, and identify potential difficulties that may occur during pregnancy.

Placenta-On-Chip technology provides revolutionary advances in the safety of pregnancies. It allows researchers to investigate placental function, diagnose issues, practice customized medicine, and develop new medicines. This will reduce the need for animal testing and change the pharmaceutical industry, improving the lives of millions of people worldwide. A patent application is being prepared for this technique, which will benefit both industry and academia.

Reference:

1. Bunch of new Placenta in chip devices can help making pregnancies safe - (https:dst.gov.in/bunch-new-placenta-chip-devices-can-help-making-pregnancies-safe)
Source: Medindia

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