Development of an artificial placenta for extremely premature infants: pumpless arteriovenous extracorporeal life support in a premature lamb model

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26860842
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Embryonic/Neonatal medicine
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Usuda Haruo 東北大学, 大学病院, 助手 (60722402)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 胎児 / 胎児循環 / 体外式補助循環 / 膜型人工肺 / 人工胎盤 / 人工羊水 / 成育限界 / ヒツジ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We examined whether premature fetal sheep, equivalent to 24-27 weeks of human gestation, could safely survive for 3 days, supported by the pumpless artificial placenta (AP) system mimicked the human placental circulation (n=12). 2 fetuses suffered cerebral white matter injury from hypocarbia caused by technical errors to operate the AP system. 4 fetuses needed to infuse the phosphodiesterase III inhibitor for left heart failure with afterload mismatch and the 2 of them resulted in cerebral hemorrhage or white matter injury. 1 fetus showed septic shock associated with bacterial contamination of artificial amniotic fluid and resulted in serious hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. It might be important for the application of the AP system to prevent the operation error, myocardial afterload mismatch and opportunistic infection.

Free Research Field

胎児生理学