New Delhi, Jul 4: Before a baby’s first breath, life depends on an extraordinary organ that most people rarely think about — the placenta.
Acting as the baby’s first life-support system, the placenta delivers oxygen and nutrients, removes waste products, protects the developing fetus and produces hormones essential for sustaining pregnancy.
Yet, despite its critical role in human development, it remains one of the least understood human organs because it is difficult to study directly during pregnancy. But that mystery may somewhat be unravelled now.
Researchers from the ICMR-National Institute for Research on Women’s Health (formerly ICMR-NIRRCH), Mumbai, in collaboration with IIT Bombay, have developed an indigenous lab-grown “placenta-on-chip” platform that recreates key functions of the human placental barrier.
Published in the journal Biofabrication, the study describes a microphysiological system that mimics the interface between the mother and fetus.
The device reproduces several essential functions of the human placenta, including hormone production, nutrient transfer, waste exchange and selective barrier function — some of the most important biological processes that sustain pregnancy.
The researchers said that the platform produces pregnancy hormones, transports glucose from the maternal to fetal side, removes waste products such as urea and responds to hyperglycaemic conditions resembling gestational diabetes.
These capabilities make it a promising platform for studying placental biology, understanding pregnancy complications, evaluating how medicines cross the placental barrier and supporting the development of more predictive human-relevant research models.
Unlike many existing placenta-on-chip systems that require sophisticated microfluidic equipment and continuous perfusion systems, the Indian platform has been designed to be simple, scalable and compatible with conventional laboratory workflows, potentially enabling wider adoption by research laboratories, authors claimed.
“Every one of us depended on a placenta for survival before birth, yet it remains one of the least understood human organs,” said Professor Deepak Modi, Scientist G at ICMR-National Institute for Research on Women’s Health (ICMR-NIRWoH) and co-corresponding author of the study.
“The placenta is the gatekeeper between mother and baby. By recreating key functions of this remarkable organ on a chip, we hope to provide researchers with a practical human-based platform to better understand pregnancy, improve maternal and fetal health and, wherever scientifically appropriate, reduce dependence on animal experimentation,” he said.
The work was led by Anshul Bhide, who carried out much of the biological validation of the system.
“Studying the human placenta in real time is extremely challenging,” Bhide said.
“This platform gives us the ability to observe how nutrients, hormones and other molecules move across the maternal-fetal interface under controlled conditions. It opens new opportunities to investigate pregnancy complications and understand how the placental barrier responds to health and disease in pregnancy.
“For example, we were able to model hyperglycaemic conditions resembling gestational diabetes and observe changes in placental transport, demonstrating the platform’s potential for studying pregnancy-associated disorders,” Bhide stated.
The engineering design and fabrication of the platform were developed at IIT Bombay under the guidance of Professor Abhijit Majumder, co-corresponding author of the paper.
“Organ-on-chip technologies are transforming biomedical research worldwide because they allow us to recreate human physiology in the laboratory,” Majumder said.
“Our objective was to develop a robust and scalable platform that combines engineering simplicity with biological relevance. By making the system compatible with standard laboratory infrastructure, we hope to accelerate its adoption for pregnancy and reproductive health research,” he added.
The study also highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between engineers and biomedical scientists.
According to co-author Dr Sourav Mukherjee, the project brought together expertise from reproductive biology, microengineering, cell biology and translational research.
“Such collaborations are essential for developing next-generation human-relevant models that can complement or replace animal studies in specific applications,” he said.
Scientists believe advanced human-cell-based systems such as placenta-on-chip platforms could play an increasingly important role in evaluating how medicines cross the placental barrier, identifying therapies that are safe during pregnancy and reducing reliance on animal models in selected areas of reproductive research.
The technology may also provide new insights into disorders such as gestational diabetes, fetal growth restriction and pre-eclampsia.
Dr Geetanjali Sachdeva, Director of ICMR-NIRWoH, said the work reflects the institute’s commitment to developing innovative solutions for women’s and reproductive health.
“This study demonstrates how cutting-edge interdisciplinary science can address important challenges in maternal and fetal health,” Sachdeva said.
“The development of advanced human-relevant models within the country strengthens India’s capabilities in biomedical innovation and aligns with global efforts to develop more predictive alternatives to animal experimentation,” she added. (PTI)
