Scientists have 3D printed an artificial placenta model that very closely resembles the natural organ, an advance that may help better understand how it affects babies' growth.
The placenta ensures the exchange of important substances between the mother and her unborn child, whilst simultaneously blocking other substances from passing through.
Until now, it has not been fully understood what the permeability of the placenta depends on. It is incredibly difficult to investigate its function in humans directly.
Researchers from Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) in Austria used a specially developed femtosecond laser-based 3D printing process to produce an artificial placenta model that very closely resembles the natural organ.
The process makes it possible to produce customised hydrogel membranes directly within microfluidic chips, which are then populated with placenta cells.
This means it is now possible to provide clarity in some vital research issues, such as the exchange of glucose between mother and child.
"The transport of substances through biological membranes plays an important role in various areas of medicine," said Aleksandr Ovsianikov of TU Wien.
"These include the blood-brain barrier, ingestion of food in the stomach and intestine, and also the placenta," said Ovsianikov.
There are, for example, numerous studies showing that diseases in the mother such as diabetes can have an impact on the unborn child. High blood pressure can also affect the transport of substances to the foetus.
Until now, however, it has been almost impossible to investigate the way in which the many parameters involved interact in such cases.
Special chip with biological partition from the 3D printer
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