India's Placenta-on-Chip (Science & Technology)
India's Placenta-on-Chip (Science & Technology)
Why In News:
Researchers from IIT Bombay and the ICMR-National Institute for Research on Women’s Health (NIRWoH), Mumbai, have developed India's first lab-grown placenta-on-chip platform, a microfluidic device that recreates key functions of the human placenta in a laboratory setting.
What is a Placenta-on-Chip?
The placenta is a temporary pregnancy organ that regulates exchange of oxygen and nutrients to the foetus while restricting many harmful substances.
It functions as a biological barrier/interface between maternal and foetal blood systems.
A placenta-on-chip is an organ-on-chip model that replicates the placental barrier using living human cells on a microdevice.
It is developed using photolithography and soft lithography techniques to simulate structure and function of the placenta in vitro.
Applications
The platform will be used to test how medicines affect a developing foetus without exposing real pregnant women or animals to risk, to study conditions such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes.
It will help to reduce dependence on animal models in line with the global 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) principle.