MUMBAI: In a breakthrough that could make medicines safer for pregnant women while reducing animal testing, researchers from IIT Bombay and the ICMR-National Institute for Research on Women’s Health (NIRWoH) have developed an indigenous placenta-on-chip platform that mimics the human placenta in the laboratory.The placenta is a temporary organ that develops during pregnancy and serves as an interface between mother and baby. It regulates the exchange of nutrients, oxygen, hormones, drugs and waste products while protecting the developing foetus.However, due to ethical and practical limitations, direct investigation of placental function during pregnancy remains extremely difficult.The new device allows scientists to study how medicines, nutrients and waste products move between the mother and foetus.
Major leap
The study, published in the journal Biofabrication, describes a compact two-chamber device containing human placental and blood vessel cells grown on opposite sides of a porous membrane.The model successfully reproduced placental functions, including hormone secretion, nutrient transport, waste exchange and selective barrier function.Unlike many existing organ-on-chip systems that require complex equipment, the Indian platform uses a simpler design that is easier to manufacture and operate.“Many organ-on-chip systems are powerful but often require specialised infrastructure. We wanted to develop a robust platform that could be adopted more broadly by research laboratories,” said IIT Bombay’s Prof Abhijit Majumder, co-corresponding author of the study.The system’s biological validation was led by researchers at ICMR-NIRWoH’s Prof Deepak Modi, who said such human-relevant models are increasingly important for understanding disease biology and evaluating therapeutic safety.“By combining engineering and reproductive biology, we have created a platform that can help bridge this gap and advance research,” he said.
