The role of the placenta in fetal exposure to drugs.

The role of the placenta in fetal exposure to drugs.

Women need to take medication during pregnancy to treat a variety of clinical conditions.  However, little is known about the extent of fetal exposure to drugs and how this might change with gestational age. The Department of Pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy has a long history of research in understanding and predicting maternal-fetal exposure to drugs.   Though maternal drug plasma concentrations are the driving force in determining fetal drug exposure, the placenta also plays a role as it is richly endowed with both influx and efflux transporters.  Through a program project grant  (P01) funded by NIDA, we are testing the hypothesis that physiologically based pharmacokinetic models, together with measurement of metabolic enzymes and transporters in the placenta, can predict fetal exposure to drugs throughout pregnancy.  My presentation will describe the progress we have made in testing this hypothesis.