How do medicines reach the baby in the womb? Indian scientists created a new ‘chip’

Pregnancy is a time when a woman is worried about her health as well as that of the child in the womb. During this period, doctors often advise taking necessary medicines, but a question always remains whether these medicines affect only the mother or do they reach the child as well? Till now it was not easy to give an exact answer, because directly studying the placenta present in the womb is not possible due to ethical and technical reasons.

This is why many questions remain before scientists regarding the safety of medicines during pregnancy. Now Indian scientists have developed such a new technology, which can reveal this mystery. The name of this technology is ‘Placenta-on-a-Chip’, which works like human placenta in the laboratory and helps in understanding how medicines, nutrients and other substances reach between the mother and the child in the womb.

New step in pregnancy research

This new technology has been jointly developed by scientists from ICMR-National Institute for Research on Women’s Health and IIT Bombay. The results of this research have been published in the international journal Biofabrication. Scientists believe that this technology can help in the future to test the safety of medicines given during pregnancy, understand pregnancy-related diseases and reduce the need for many tests on animals.

What does it mean in simple language?

In simple language, this is a small lab which mimics the way the placenta works. With this, doctors and scientists will be able to know which medicines can reach the child, which cannot and what effect that medicine can have. If this technology is successful on a large scale, then the method of treatment of pregnant women and their children can become much safer and better in the future.

• Indian scientists have developed ‘placenta-on-a-chip’ technology.
• This technique will tell whether the medicines taken during pregnancy reach the child or not.
• In future, this may help in developing safe medicines and reducing testing on animals.

What is placenta?

Placenta is a special organ formed during pregnancy, which acts as a bridge between mother and child. Through this the child gets oxygen, nutrition and essential elements. Besides, the waste products from the child’s body also reach the mother’s body through this route. Placenta also works to prevent many harmful elements from reaching the baby and produces hormones necessary for pregnancy.

What is ‘placenta-on-a-chip’?

This is a very small lab-based technology, in which an artificial model like placenta has been created with the help of human cells. It consists of two separate parts, which are separated by a thin membrane. On one side there are cells from the mother’s side and on the other side there are cells from the child’s side. With this, scientists can see in the laboratory how medicines, nutrients and other substances travel from one part to another.

How does this technology work?

Scientists have used trophoblast and endothelial cells in this. These are the same cells that are present in the real placenta. During testing, the chip produced hormones, showed the exchange of nutrients like glucose and also replicated the process of expelling waste products. Not only this, it was also successful in allowing essential elements to pass through while blocking out harmful substances.

How will it help to check security?

It is not ethically easy to conduct clinical trials of medicines on pregnant women. Therefore, till now scientists have to depend largely on tests conducted on animals. But there is a lot of difference between the placenta of animals and humans. The new chip technology is based on human cells, so it is expected to provide more accurate information. With this, it will be possible to find out whether any medicine crosses the placenta and reaches the child or not.

Which diseases will it help in understanding?

This technology will also help in studying problems like gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and slow growth of the baby in the womb. Scientists will be able to create disease-like conditions in the lab and see how the placenta reacts. This may open the way for developing new medicines and better treatments in the future. Scientists believe that this technology can become an alternative or complement to many tests conducted on animals in the future. However, it is still in its initial stages and further testing will be required before it can be adopted on a large scale.