A lab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the United States has made a groundbreaking discovery that can sustain premature lambs inside an artificial womb.
The developed device looks like a plastic bag filled with nutrient-rich fluid. Preterm lambs, equivalent to human fetuses at 23 weeks, were placed inside and connected via their umbilical cords to a machine that circulated blood and supplied oxygen, just as a placenta would. For weeks, the lambs continued to grow, opening their eyes and even sprouting wool.
The team’s motivation was to reduce infant mortality drastically, caused mainly by extreme prematurity, especially because conventional incubators cannot replicate the environment of the womb. By creating a system that more closely mimics natural development, the researchers aim to provide fragile human babies with a better chance of survival.
Published in Nature Communications, their study represents the culmination of years of engineering and medical collaboration. Questions about ethics, safety, and eventual human trials remain unanswered; however, the progress has already sparked debate about how far neonatal care can and should be taken.
If the technology reaches hospitals, it could redefine the earliest stages of human life, giving thousands of premature infants a better chance of survival.
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