Bern researchers develop artificial placenta to test medicine

Artificial placenta clarifies risks of medication for pregnant women Keystone-SDA

Researchers at the University of Bern have developed an artificial placenta. The aim is to use the laboratory model to find out how medication taken by a pregnant woman reaches the unborn child.

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It is unclear for most drugs whether and to what extent they are passed on to an unborn child, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) announced on Thursday. Many drugs are therefore not authorised for pregnant women as a precautionary measure, even though they may not pose a risk.

Animal studies are also not always meaningful for these questions, as the placenta – the barrier that protects the foetus from toxins – functions very differently depending on the animal.

To remedy this, a team at the University of Bern led by biomedical scientist Christiane Albrecht has now developed a model in an SNSF-funded project that is intended to better represent the transport of substances in the human placenta than previous methods.

Cells obtained directly after delivery

The model replicates the placental barrier in a plastic vessel. It consists of two different cell layers. A permeable membrane separates the two layers.

The special feature of the laboratory placenta is the use of cells from recent deliveries. These fresh cells from the placenta and umbilical cord have abilities that are lost in cell cultures that have been grown in the laboratory for a long time.

In future, the researchers want to use the model to investigate not only the path of drugs, but also the transport of substances such as iron and cholesterol. Such models could also help to reduce the number of animal experiments.

However, the method is currently still too labour-intensive to be used on a large scale. The next step would be to examine how the system could be simplified for routine use, for example for toxicological tests.

Translated from German by AI/jdp

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