'Mini-placenta' organ models highlight pregnancy defects | Life

PARIS, Nov. 29 – Scientists unveiled yesterday a model organ, developed in the laboratory, that reproduces the early stages of the placenta and that they believe could transform our understanding of reproductive disorders and complications during pregnancy.

According to the United Nations, nearly 300,000 women die each year worldwide due to preventable problems related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Many of these deaths are attributable to the placenta – a temporary organ connecting the developing baby to her mother's womb – during the first few weeks of pregnancy.

But as the changes in both cases occur deep in the woman's body, the placenta is one of the least understood organs in the world.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge stated that they had managed to grow placentas outside the uterus that continued to grow for over a year and which filled the most of the main functions of the organ.

They stated that the revolutionary creation of these placenta models – or organoids – allowed for a better understanding of the changes that occurred in early pregnancy and could ultimately save women from conditions that may constitute danger of death as their mandate progresses.

"The placenta is the first organ that develops and is the least understood," Ashley Moffett, of the Department of Pathology of the University, told reporters.

"It provides all the functions for the baby in utero, it protects the baby and it secretes a load of hormones and other products – if one of these functions does not work, the pregnancy does not will not succeed. "

Often, medical research of products or breakthroughs for humans begins in animals.

But human and animal placentas are too different to be a good model for research, and in the last 30 years, increasing efforts have been made to develop placental cells outside the body.

Moffett and the team have succeeded in creating a model of miniature placenta in laboratory conditions by identifying and isolating cells from the trophoblast – the membrane that provides nutrients to an embryo and helps the placenta attach to itself. 39; uterus.

These organoids have been able to survive in the long term and have even begun to secrete the same proteins and hormones that would affect the mother's natural functions during pregnancy. Even over-the-counter home pregnancy tests have revealed the presence of, for example, the hormone HCG.

"They tell us they are pregnant"

"We are now almost certain that they are trophoblast cells – but do they work? Do they do the things that a placenta does? Said Moffett.

"We have stuck a pregnancy stick in the organoid and you can see that the organoids produce HCG and tell us that they are pregnant."

The team said the mini-organs would help doctors understand the development of perinatal complications, such as pre-eclampsia – a life-threatening condition in which the mother's extreme blood pressure can only be relieved giving birth.

According to information from the World Health Organization, this disease is thought to be related to placental formation. In 2015, it killed nearly 47,000 women worldwide.

Researchers hope that they will be able to isolate some early-pregnancy chemicals or signals by developing placenta-replicating models, which will help develop a test for women who may be at risk as they become pregnant. mandate is progressing.

"This can now be done using this experimental model in a dish," Moffett told AFP.

Commenting on the study published in the newspaper NatureVivian Li, group leader of the Francis Crick Institute, described the mini-organs as an "exciting breakthrough".

"The possibility of growing these mini-placents in the dish opened the possibility of more complex studies," said Li, who did not participate in the research. – AFP