Alternatives to animal testing for assessing transplacental transfer

Abstract

In drug development, reproductive and developmental toxicity tests play a crucial role in safeguarding the health of future generations. However, effective methods for predicting toxicity have not yet been established. Differences among species make toxicity testing challenging because it is difficult to extrapolate animal testing results to humans. Recently, in vitro testing using human cells has gained attention as a promising alternative, offering the potential to complement or partially replace traditional animal reproductive and developmental toxicity tests. In this review, we introduce several ‘placental barrier models’ for assessing chemical transfer from the mother to the fetus, including both conventional approaches and our latest in vitro methods.