{
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  "id": "maternal:idea-artificial-placenta",
  "owner": "maternal",
  "kind": "idea",
  "slug": "idea-artificial-placenta",
  "name": "Artificial placenta or womb for extremely preterm babies",
  "aliases": [],
  "atlases": [
    "maternal"
  ],
  "summary_plain": "A research idea: keep a very premature baby in a fluid-filled bag, with its blood oxygenated through the umbilical cord by a machine, so that its organs can keep maturing without air breathing. In 2017 a team supported fetal lambs this way for up to 4 weeks and reported normal growth, lung maturation and brain growth. This atlas records no human study.",
  "summary_technical": "Idea, early feasibility in animals only. The study (Nature Communications 2017; open-access copy PMC5414058, CC BY) has a Corrigendum that adds a patent to the competing interests and changes no result; both were read. The authors give the problem as extreme prematurity being the leading cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in the developed world through organ immaturity and iatrogenic injury, and say earlier extracorporeal systems had limited success. No human use, trial or approval is recorded here.",
  "editorial_state": "draft",
  "last_substantive_edit": "2026-10-15",
  "last_evidence_check": "2026-10-15",
  "next_review_due": null,
  "identifiers": [],
  "navigation": {
    "maternal": {
      "life-stage": [
        "newborn"
      ],
      "care-area": [
        "preterm-and-sick-newborn"
      ]
    }
  },
  "payload": {
    "hypothesis": "Supporting an extremely preterm fetus in a closed fluid circuit, with gas exchange through the umbilical vessels by a pumpless oxygenator, could allow organs to mature without exposure to ventilation.",
    "rationale": "In lambs developmentally equivalent to the extreme premature human infant, the system supported the animals for up to 4 weeks with stable haemodynamics and normal growth, lung maturation and brain growth and myelination (abstract).",
    "test": "No human test is recorded in this atlas.",
    "maturity": "early_feasibility",
    "proponents": [],
    "objections": [
      "The evidence is in lambs, not human infants.",
      "Earlier extracorporeal systems had achieved limited success, the abstract says."
    ]
  },
  "content_digest": "5176d0d1fb5e4bab1d039825b45b3f71a64856d0c7218150126b18d610f373c9",
  "review": {
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    "current": [],
    "conflicting": [],
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  "claims": [
    {
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      "id": "maternal:claim-artificial-placenta-lamb",
      "owner": "maternal",
      "subject_entity_id": "maternal:idea-artificial-placenta",
      "category": "descriptive",
      "statement": "In a 2017 study in Nature Communications, a system with a pumpless oxygenator circuit connected to the fetus of a lamb through an umbilical cord interface, kept within a closed amniotic-fluid-like circuit, supported fetal lambs described as developmentally equivalent to the extreme premature human infant for up to 4 weeks. The authors report that the lambs on support maintained stable haemodynamics, normal blood gas and oxygenation parameters and patency of the fetal circulation, and, with appropriate nutritional support, showed normal somatic growth, lung maturation and brain growth and myelination.",
      "context": {
        "id": "maternal:ctx-fetal-lambs-extra-uterine-support",
        "label": "Fetal lambs supported in an extra-uterine system (animal study)",
        "recipient": "not_applicable",
        "population": "Fetal lambs described as developmentally equivalent to the extreme premature human infant, supported in an extra-uterine device for up to 4 weeks. This is an animal study; no human infant took part.",
        "care_setting": "Laboratory animal study",
        "geography": "Not stated in the abstract",
        "life_stage_note": "Fetal lambs (animal), not a human life stage",
        "life_stage_terms": {
          "maternal": [
            "newborn"
          ]
        },
        "gestational_age_min_days": null,
        "gestational_age_max_days": null,
        "gestational_age_basis": null,
        "postnatal_age_min_days": null,
        "postnatal_age_max_days": null,
        "gestational_age_status": null,
        "postnatal_age_status": null,
        "followup_description": "Support in the device for up to 4 weeks; growth, lung maturation, brain growth and myelination assessed.",
        "eligibility": {
          "inclusion": [
            "Fetal lambs developmentally equivalent to the extreme premature human infant"
          ],
          "exclusion": []
        }
      },
      "evidence_stage": "preclinical",
      "certainty": "not_assessed",
      "certainty_method": null,
      "limitations": "An animal study, read from the abstract of the open-access (CC BY) copy. No human use is recorded in this atlas. PubMed links a Corrigendum (a published erratum), which was read: the correction adds a patent to the Competing interests statement and does not change a result. It states no human outcome and no long-term outcome of the lambs after the support period.",
      "editorial_state": "draft",
      "checked_at": "2026-10-15",
      "next_review_due": null,
      "valid_from": null,
      "valid_to": null,
      "citations": [
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          "evidence_role": "supports",
          "locator": "Abstract, sentences 3 to 6",
          "applicability_note": "The device and what the lambs showed.",
          "snapshot": {
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            "source_effective_date": null,
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            "source_state": "corrected"
          },
          "source": {
            "id": "maternal:pmc-pmc5414058",
            "source_type": "publication",
            "title": "An extra-uterine system to physiologically support the extreme premature lamb",
            "canonical_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5414058/",
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                "scheme": "pmcid",
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                "value": "10.1038/ncomms15112",
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            "publication_date": null,
            "publisher": "Nature Communications",
            "edition": "PMC Open Access subset full-text XML, from NCBI E-utilities. PubMed links a Corrigendum (Nat Commun 2017;8:15794, PMID 28534492; PMC5457507). It adds a patent to the Competing interests statement and does not change any result.",
            "reuse_basis": "PMC Open Access subset article under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The article's own <permissions> states the licence. The XML is committed unaltered, with the citation and licence kept in the file. The raw file is committed at research/snapshots/mn-pmc-PMC5414058.xml.",
            "public_text": "quote",
            "replaced_by": null,
            "retirement_note": null
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        },
        {
          "evidence_role": "context",
          "locator": "Corrigendum, body",
          "applicability_note": "What the published correction changes.",
          "snapshot": {
            "id": "maternal:pmc-pmc5457507-2026-10-15",
            "retrieved_at": "2026-10-15T14:01:20Z",
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            "source_effective_date": null,
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            "source_state": "current"
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          "source": {
            "id": "maternal:pmc-pmc5457507",
            "source_type": "publication",
            "title": "Corrigendum: An extra-uterine system to physiologically support the extreme premature lamb",
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            "publication_date": null,
            "publisher": "Nature Communications",
            "edition": "PMC Open Access subset full-text XML of the corrigendum, from NCBI E-utilities. PubMed lists it as a Published Erratum (PMID 28534492).",
            "reuse_basis": "PMC Open Access subset article; the article's permissions element gives a Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The XML is committed unaltered at research/snapshots/mn-pmc-PMC5457507.xml.",
            "public_text": "quote",
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      "api_path": "api/v1/claims/maternal--claim-artificial-placenta-lamb.json"
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  "decisions": [],
  "milestones": [],
  "relationships": {
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        "predicate": "related_to",
        "label": "Extreme prematurity (existing page)",
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