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，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婴儿的健康进行编程，或者控制婴儿是否过早怀孕。九分之一的婴儿早产，这可能会导致许多健康问题，在以后的生活。由于胎盘的复杂性，很难在动物模型或人类中研究这种屏障。我们的研究将在芯片上开发一个胎盘;一个微型设备，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第一个这样的设备的例子，它将胎盘的重要细胞聚集在一起，模拟人类胎盘中存在的适当氧气水平和血液流动。这种装置将非常有助于降低药物测试的成本，以确定它们是否对母亲或胎儿有害，也有助于减少用于药物测试的动物数量。重要的是，我们还将验证这个设备是否预测了实际胎盘组织在环境毒素处理时的生物反应;这是没有人评估过的。我们将能够以简单而廉价的方式确定某些化学物质是否会导致母胎屏障释放出可能伤害婴儿或导致早产的信号。我们已经与加拿大公司Evik Diagnostics合作，该公司对影响孕妇和婴儿健康的诊断测试感兴趣。

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.