Arguably the most famous fertility treatment occurred in the late 1970s, when doctors fertilized an ova outside of a woman's body and then transferred the zygote to the woman's uterus. The eventual birth of Louise Brown in 1978 in Greater Manchester, U.K., gave way to the term "test tube baby" and the process of in vitro fertilization.
Now researchers have advanced the test tube, creating a human ovary able to mature human eggs. The artificial organ could provide researchers with a living laboratory in which to test fertility treatments and even preserve the fertility of woman who are undergoing radiation therapy for cancer.
The team, comprised of Brown University-based Sandra Carson, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and Jeffrey Morgan, associate professor of medical science and engineering, published their results in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics.
Unlike a test tube or Petri, dish where cells are cultured in a solution, the engineered ovary is a three-dimensional structure with layers of tissue similar to those in a human ovary.
The 3-D structure begins with donated theca cells, one of two types of cells essential to fertility. Researchers allowed these cells to grow into a honeycomb shape. Next, they inserted human eggs cells and clumps of donated granulosa cells, which produce sex steroids and growth factors, into the holes of the honeycomb.
After a couple days, the honeycombed theca cells closed around the granulosa and eggs, mimicking the behavior of a natural ovary. It was also able to nurture the eggs to full maturity.
The engineered ovary will give the researchers a living laboratory in which to study how healthy ovaries work and also how they react to toxic conditions, such as those that occur when a woman undergoes chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer. It's possible that in those circumstances, immature eggs could be removed from a patient's ovaries before treatment and then matured in the artificial ovary.
Image: An engineered honeycomb of cultured theca cells (top row) envelopes spheres of granulosa cells. The bottom row shows the tissue after 48 hours (left) and after five days.
Credit: Carson Lab/Brown University
[via Physorg]
Tags: Biotechnology, Tissue Engineering
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