Placenta Perfusion System: a human ex vivo model system to study the maternal – fetal barrier

Background The recent research dealing with potential health hazards of nanosized materials has focused on cells and tissue barriers like air / blood, skin and brain / blood barrier. One important barrier was not yet took into consideration: the human placenta which is responsible for the nutrients, gas and waste exchange between fetal and maternal blood. Because of the unique anatomy of the human placenta no equivalent animal system is available. The ex vivo dual perfusion system can address therefore the questions of pharmacokinetics of endogenous substances, xenobiotics and nanoparticles in maternal/fetal cir…