Abstract: Pregnant women generally take some medicine, which is the focus of attention on the drug safety during pregnancy. Multiple effects of drugs on pregnant outcomes include miscarriage, and fetal anomaly and death, because drugs can penetrate the placental barrier and result in fetal intrauterine exposure. The key factor to assess the fetal risk is the dose of fetal exposure, suggesting the degree of drug transport through placenta. It is important to study the placental transport for the clinical safe medication in pregnant women. The placental perfusion model is theoretically considered as the best model to simulate the placental material transport. It is also internationally recognized as the classical method in this area, without species differences and ethical issues. This model was introduced in detail in this review, including its design, development, identification, and application in studying the placental transport of some common drugs and nanometer materials. Because of the complexity during developing this model and some itself defects, it is necessary to develop new in vitro models of the placental material transport for guiding the clinical safe medication in pregnant women.

Key words: Placenta, Perfusion, Maternal-fetal exchange, Models, biological, Nanostructures