Leveraging bioengineering to assess cellular functions and communication within human fetal membranes

Abstract

The fetal membranes enclose the growing fetus and amniotic fluid. Preterm prelabor rupture of fetal membranes is a leading cause of preterm birth. Fetal membranes are composed of many different cell types, both structural and immune. These cells must coordinate functions for tensile strength and membrane integrity to contain the growing fetus and amniotic fluid. They must also balance immune responses to pathogens with maintaining maternal-fetal tolerance. Perturbation of this equilibrium can lead to preterm premature rupture of membranes without labor. In this review, we describe the formation of the fetal membranes to orient the reader, discuss some of the common forms of communication between the cell types of the fetal membranes, and delve into the methods used to tease apart this paracrine signaling within the membranes, including emerging technologies such as organ-on-chip models of membrane immunobiology.

Keywords:

• Organ-on-chip
• fetal membrane
• immunology
• preterm prelabor rupture of membranes
• preterm birth

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Miss Vanessa Mancini at the University of Leeds for the design and fabrication of the planar microfluidic model of the fetal membrane, Dr. Juan Gnecco and Dr. John Wikswo for development of the first generation IFMOC, and the laboratory of Dr. David Cliffel for developing the instrumentation for the IFMOC. AJE would like to acknowledge Nadja for their assistance maintaining focus.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding sources to be acknowledged are NIH [1R01AI134036-01 and T32AI095202-02] and March of Dimes foundation. This project has also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement [No. 748903].