Development of Organ-on-Chip for the Study of Placental Pathologies: A Ten-Year Study of Literature Published

Context: 

The placenta performs a crucial function in nutrient exchange, but studying this tissue poses a number of challenges. Utilizing microfluidic and microfabrication technologies, a 3D placenta-on-a-chip model provides a biomimetic alternative for studying placental diseases and treatments.

To review and analyze the currently available placenta-on-chip data to study placental pathologies in patients.

By systematically searching the PubMed, Scopus, and Science Direct databases, research papers that employed 3D printing techniques for the development of organoids and Organ-on-Chip (OoC) systems for in vitro experiments were gathered and scrutinized.

When exposed to glucose transfer, placenta-on-a-chip mimics the features of an in vivo human placenta. Microchips have the potential to become a platform for diagnostic purposes for placental diseases and a model for duplicating the important features of these diseases.

The microfluidic placenta-on-a-chip platform holds promise as an affordable solution with versatile applications. However, research is essential to develop a comprehensive in vitro pregnancy model in the future to expand our understanding of feto-maternal communication.