[THE EFFECT OF MAGNESIUM SULPHATE AND LABETALOL ON PLACENTAL VESSELS REACTIVITY USING THE EX-VIVO PLACENTAL PERFUSION MODEL].

Background: The use of magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) in combination with antihypertensive drugs such as Labetalol is common in preeclampsia.

Objectives: We aimed to examine the effects of MgSO4 and Labetalol on placental blood vessel reactivity in response to angiotensin II (ATII).

Methods: A dual-perfused single cotyledon model was used.

Adverse placental effects of valproic acid: Studies in perfused human placentas.

Objective: In utero exposure to valproic acid (VPA) has been associated with worse pregnancy outcomes compared to all other antiepileptic drugs. We have previously shown that VPA alters the expression of placental transporters for hormones and nutrients in vitro and in pregnant mice. Here, our aim was to characterize the effects of short exposure to VPA on the expression of carriers for compounds essential for fetal development in human placentas ex vivo, under controlled conditions.

The Placental Barrier: the Gate and the Fate in Drug Distribution.

Optimal development of the embryo and the fetus depends on placental passage of gases, nutrients, hormones, and waste products. These molecules are transferred across the placenta via passive diffusion, carrier-mediated cellular uptake and efflux, and transcytosis pathways. The same mechanisms additionally control the rate and extent of transplacental transfer of drugs taken by the pregnant mother.

Maternal-fetal transfer of indocyanine green across the perfused human placenta.

Indocyanine green (ICG) is an FDA-approved near-infrared imaging probe, given also to pregnant women. We aimed to characterize ICG's transplacental transfer using the ex-vivo perfusion model. Placentas were obtained from caesarean deliveries.

Antiepileptic drugs alter the expression of placental carriers: An in vitro study in a human placental cell line.

Objective: Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) affect the expression of carriers for drugs and nutrients at several blood-tissue barriers, but their impact on placental carriers is largely unknown. Our aim was to study the effects of AEDs in human placental cells on the expression of carriers for hormones, nutrients, and drugs: folate placental uptake carriers (reduced folate carrier, RFC; folate receptor α, FRα) and efflux transporters (breast cancer resistance protein, BCRP and multidrug resistance protein 2) and thyroid hormone uptake transporters (l-type amino acid transporter-LAT1 and organic anion transporting polypeptides-OATPs).

Methods: The human trophoblast BeWo cells were incubated with phenytoin (PHT), valproic acid (VPA), carbamazepine (CBZ), levetiracetam (LEV), lamotrigine (LTG), or their vehicles at concentrations that mostly represent their therapeutic range.

Drug Interactions at the Human Placenta: What is the Evidence?

Pregnant women (and their fetuses) are treated with a significant number of prescription and non-prescription medications. Interactions among those drugs may affect their efficacy and toxicity in both mother and fetus. Whereas interactions that result in altered drug concentrations in maternal plasma are detectable, those involving modulation of placental transfer mechanisms are rarely reflected by altered drug concentrations in maternal plasma.