Uteroplacental Flow Dynamics in a 3D-Printed Human Placental Cotyledon

For this, a whole cotyledon from a born human placenta was measured by Micro-CT with a 50 µm voxel size. The Micro-CT volume was processed further to remove unresolved structures.

The binarized data was scaled by a factor of eight and printed in 3D together with arterial inlets, venous oulets and supporting structures. The placenta model was perfused subsequently with a fluid mimicking the properties of human blood. The flow within the intervillous space was measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).