SYDNEY: Researchers in Australia are developing an artificial placenta aimed at improving survival and long-term health outcomes for premature babies, though the technology remains at least a decade away from clinical use, reported Xinhua.
A research project is working on trying to help those babies through building an artificial placenta, as they are far from ready to face the outside world, according to a statement released by Australia’s Women and Infants Research Foundation (WIRF) on Monday.
The technology would allow babies to keep getting nutrients and oxygen in the same way they would in the uterus, essentially allowing them to grow and develop further before they have to face the challenges of eating and breathing for themselves.
“This artificial placenta technology that we’re conceptualising and building is a way of trying to give these babies another three or four weeks perhaps to grow and develop in an environment that’s not dissimilar (to the uterus),” WIRF chief scientist Professor Matt Kemp told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
“Not only are they immature, they’re also sick quite often, and it’s a real challenge to treat these babies,” said Kemp, who is leading the research at the WIRF, located at Perth’s King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women.
The placenta is a developing baby’s complete life-support system, providing both nutrients and gas exchange, and is joined to the baby via the umbilical cord.
The artificial version, now being trialled in sheep, is also hooked up via the belly button, but otherwise looks nothing like a placenta.
Kemp describes the system as two small clear perspex blocks, about the size of a Rubik’s Cube, linked by catheters and hosing and acting as “a miniaturised gas exchange device.”
“But the remarkable thing about the system that we’ve developed is that the system’s powered by the fetus itself – the fetal heart drives the system,” he said.
“It’s not powered by an external pump or pressure source, and that makes it really responsive to the needs of that fetus.”
Artificial placentas are unlikely to enter clinical use soon, with Kemp estimating they are at least 10 to 15 years away, as ongoing refinements continue to reveal new technical challenges, the ABC reported. – BERNAMA-XINHUA
