Preliminary interlaboratory comparison of the ex vivo dual human placental perfusion system

As a part of EU-project ReProTect, a comparison of the dual re-circulating human placental perfusion system was carried out, by two independent research groups. The detailed placental transfer data of model compounds [antipyrine, benzo(a)pyrene, PhIP (2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo(4,5-b)pyridine) and IQ (2-amino-3-methylimidazo(4,5-f)quinoline] has been/will be published separately. For this project, a comparative re-analysis was done, by curve fitting the data and calculating two endpoints: AUC120, defined as the area under the curve between time 0 and time 120 min and as t0.5, defined as the time when the fetal to maternal concentration ratio is expected to be 0.5. The transport of the compounds from maternal to fetal circulation across the perfused placenta could be ranked in the order of antipyrine > IQ > PhIP in terms of both t0.5 and AUC120 by both partners. For benzo(a)pyrene the curve fitting failed. These prevalidation results give confidence for harmonization of the placental perfusion system to be used as one of the test methods in a panel for reproductive toxicology to model placental transfer in humans.