Establishment of a 3D multicellular placental microtissues for investigating the effect of antidepressant vortioxetine

Research Overview

The placenta has an active metabolism and dynamically changing physiology through pregnancy, but interspecies differences and ethical constraints make its cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions difficult to study in vivo.

This study co-cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells with human placental choriocarcinoma (BeWo) cells for the first time to form spheroids on a 3D Petri Dish® mold, comparing them against a traditional 2D system. The model was then applied to vortioxetine, an antidepressant with little published data on use during pregnancy — demonstrating the platform’s value for pregnancy drug safety questions.