India, July 5 -- Before a baby's first breath, life depends on an extraordinary organ that most people rarely think about - the placenta. Acting as the baby's first life-support system, the placenta delivers oxygen and nutrients, removes waste products, protects the developing fetus and produces hormones essential for sustaining pregnancy. Yet, despite its critical role in human development, it remains one of the least understood human organs because it is difficult to study directly during pregnancy. But that mystery may somewhat be unravelled now. Researchers from the ICMR-National Institute for Research on Women's Health (formerly ICMR-NIRRCH), Mumbai, in collaboration with IIT Bombay, have developed an indigenous lab-grown "placenta-on-chip" platform that recreates key functions of the human placental barrier.
Published in the journal Biofabrication, the study describes a microphysiological system that mimics the interface between the mother and fetus. The device reproduces several essential functions of the human placenta, including hormone production, nutrient transfer, waste exchange and selective barrier function -- some of the most important biological processes that sustain pregnancy. The researchers said that the platform produces pregnancy hormones, transports glucose from the maternal to fetal side, removes waste products such as urea and responds to hyperglycaemic conditions resembling gestational diabetes. These capabilities make it a promising platform for studying placental biology, understanding pregnancy complications, evaluating how medicines cross the placental barrier and supporting the development of more predictive human-relevant research models. Unlike many existing placenta-on-chip systems that require sophisticated microfluidic equipment and continuous perfusion systems, the Indian platform has been designed to be simple, scalable and compatible with conventional laboratory workflows, potentially enabling wider adoption by research laboratories, authors claimed.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.