2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Development of an artificial placenta using a premature lamb model

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21791030
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Embryonic/Neonatal medicine
Research Institution	Tohoku University
Principal Investigator	KITANISHI Ryuta Tohoku University, 大学院・医学系研究科, 非常勤講師 (20436116)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	人工胎盤 / 人工羊水 / 人工子宮 / 胎児循環 / 膜型人工肺 / 動脈管 / マイクロスフェア法
Research Abstract	The purpose of this study was to develop an artificial placenta in the form of a pumplessarteriovenous extracorporeal life support circuit that could maintain fetal circulation.Sheep fetuses survived for more than 15 hours with the artificial placenta while maintaining fetal circulation. Dopamine could increase the mean arterial pressure transiently. However, blood lactatewas increased and the cardiac performance was gradually deteriorated over time even while the gas exchange ofthe artificial placenta was maintained. Elevated mean arterial pressurein our experiment might be achieved by systemic vasoconstriction, which led to decreased systemic organ flowdue to increased artificial placental flow, resulted in systemic circulatory failure. It may be important to retain both systemic and circuit circulation by controlling each resistance.