Placenta on a chip: A humanized platform for testing of pharmaceuticals and environmental chemicals

人类胎盘是一个复杂的器官，它控制着婴儿的健康，也影响着母亲的健康。来自形成母亲和胎儿之间屏障的细胞的信号可以在婴儿出生后对其健康进行编程，或者控制婴儿是否过早出生。每九个婴儿中就有一个是早产的，这可能会在以后的生活中导致许多健康问题。由于胎盘的复杂性，很难在动物模型或人类中研究这一屏障。我们的研究将开发一种芯片上的胎盘；这是一种微型设备，可以在3D中模仿人类胎盘的一小部分。我们将开发特殊的表面，使胎盘干细胞的行为就像它们在子宫内的自然环境中一样。这种便携式胎盘将是这种设备的第一个例子，它将胎盘的重要细胞聚集在一起，并模拟人类胎盘中存在的适当的氧气水平和血流量。这种设备将非常有助于降低药物测试的成本，以确定它们是否会对母亲或胎儿造成伤害，并有助于减少用于药物测试的动物数量。重要的是，我们还将验证该设备是否可以预测实际胎盘组织在接受环境毒素治疗时的生物反应；这一点还没有人评估过。我们可以轻而易举、廉价地确定某些化学物质是否导致母胎屏障释放可能伤害婴儿或导致早产的信号。我们已经与加拿大的evik Diagnostics公司合作，该公司对影响怀孕期间母婴健康的疾病进行诊断测试感兴趣。

The human placenta is a complex organ that controls the health of the baby and also impactsthe health of the mother. Signals from the cells that form the barrier between mother and fetuscan program the babies health after it is born or control whether the baby is bornprematurely. 1 in 9 babies are born prematurely and this can lead to many health problems inlater life. It is difficult to study this barrier in animal models or humans because of thecomplexity of the placenta. Our research will develop a placenta on a chip; a micro-devicethat mimics a small section of the human placenta in 3D. We will develop special surfacesthat allow the stem cells of the placenta to behave as though they were in their naturalenvironment within the womb. This portable placenta will be the first example of such adevice that brings together the important cells of the placenta and simulates the properoxygen levels and blood flow that would exist in the human placenta. This device will be veryuseful in reducing the cost of testing drugs to see if they would be harmful to the mother orfetus and also help to reduce the number of animals that are used in drug testing. Importantly,we will also verify whether this device predicts the biological responses of actual placentaltissues when treated with environmental toxins; something that no one has evaluated. We willeasily and inexpensively be able to identify whether certain chemicals are causing thematernal-fetal barrier to release signals that might harm the baby or cause premature birth.We have already partnered with Evik Diagnostics, a Canadian company that is interested indiagnostic testing for conditions that affect the health of the mother and baby in pregnancy.