‘Artificial’ ovaries offer hope for infertility
Development could be available within three years, resulting in natural pregnancy
BARCELONA, Spain — “Artificial” human ovaries have been created for the first time in a breakthrough that promises hope for infertile women.
Researchers successfully grafted follicles, the precursors to eggs, on to a biological “scaffold” which then grew normally.
The development, which could be available within three years, means women with malfunctioning ovaries can look forward to getting pregnant naturally.
Currently their best option is to freeze their eggs before problems in the ovary start, and then undergo potentially gruelling in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The technique will be of particular benefit to female cancer sufferers whose fertility is often destroyed by radio and chemotherapy, as well as patients with multiple sclerosis and certain blood disorders.
Doctors already know how to remove, cryo-preserve and then reimplant ovary tissue once harsh treatment is complete. However, the take-up rate is very low — there have been around 100 resulting births worldwide — because of the risk that the procedure will reintroduce cancer into the body.
But the new technique, revealed at the recent European Society of Reproduction and Embryology annual meeting in Barcelona, strips out the cells from the ovary tissue, allowing re-implantation with no malignant risk.
“It’s very exciting. The beauty of this is that many of the women who are having ovarian grafts can go and get pregnant naturally, and don’t need to go through IVF. That is a huge advantage,” said Stuart Lavery, consultant gynecologist and reproductive surgeon at London’s Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust:
Researchers at the Rigshospitalet in Denmark removed sections of ovary from patients about to undergo cancer treatment and then cut them in half.
From one half they collected and preserved follicles. On the other they stripped out the cells using a three-day chemical process, effectively leaving a neutral scaffold of tissue on to which the follicles were later grafted after the scaffold had been frozen in storage and then thawed.
The “artificial” ovary was then implanted into a mouse, where the follicles reached biofunctionality, the first time this has ever been achieved.
The method means women who have been treated for cancer should be able to avoid an early menopause.
This is because cells around the eggs are responsible for the hormones that regulate the body’s reproductive cycle.
The technique also allows the prospect of one day starting a family for child cancer sufferers who undergo fertility-harming treatment before they are old enough to produce eggs that can be preserved.