PhD defence Gwenaëlle Marie-Jeanne Laurence Rabussier

Keywords: Placenta, Organ-on-a-chip, Drug transport, Preeclampsia

"Microfluidics placental barrier models of healthy and diseased pregnancies: For transport and toxicity studies"

This thesis investigated how the human placenta can be modelled in the laboratory to study drug transport processes, toxicity, and pregnancy-related disorders such as preeclampsia. The placenta forms the interface between mother and fetus and regulates the transfer of nutrients, drugs, and potentially harmful substances. However, relatively little is known about drug transfer during pregnancy, partly due to the lack of reliable and physiologically relevant laboratory models.

To address this, a three-dimensional microfluidic placental barrier-on-a-chip model was developed that more closely mimics key features of the human placental barrier, including fluid flow and interactions between different cell types. The model was used to assess the functionality of placental drug transporters and to evaluate drug-induced toxicity in placental cells. In addition, aspects of preeclampsia were reproduced to study placental dysfunction.

This work provides a more physiologically relevant in vitro platform that can be used for drug testing, screening, and the study of placental diseases.

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