In vitro studies of ferric carboxymaltose on placental permeability using the dual perfusion model of human placenta.

An in vitro perfusion model of human placenta was used to study the transplacental passage of iron applied in the form of the drug compound ferric carboxymaltose (FCM) which had been radio-labelled with 59Fe. In four placental perfusion experiments, two simulated circuits for the maternal and fetal sides of the placenta were set up with two experimental phases each lasting 3 h. FCM was added to the maternal circuit at the beginning of each phase to a final iron concentration of 11 mM, which is at least 10 times higher than the maximal predicted level in blood after an administration of 200 mg iron as FCM. The effects of adding transferrin at a physiological concentration of 1.67 mg/ ml were also tested. The concentration profiles of 59Fe showed a 10% decrease within the first 30 min of perfusion on the maternal side. Thereafter the radioactivity levels remained unchanged. The addition of transferrin had no effect on the tissue uptake of 59Fe-FCM. No transferred iron radioactivity could be detected in the fetal circuit. Despite a loss of approximately 10% of the radio-labelled iron observed on the maternal side, only 0.5-2% of the radioactivity was detected in the placental tissue after perfusion. No free iron could be detected at the end of perfusion on the maternal side using ultrafiltration or acid precipitation methods. In addition, the production of transferrin receptor remained unchanged, with similar concentrations in placental tissue before and after perfusion. No effects of FCM on placental viability were observed in terms of energy metabolism (glucose consumption and lactate production), hormone release or placental permeability (assessed by the transfer rates of creatinine and antipyrine). However, two additional observations were made: firstly, a significant reduction in the rate of cell death compared to control conditions was observed in the presence of FCM; secondly, the integrity of the fetal capillary system was improved on the fetal side of the perfusion system. It is concluded that the iron compound FCM does not cross the placenta and may increase the integrity of placental tissue (at least under in vitro conditions), but this latter observation needs further investigation.