Artificial Ovary Could Help Women Design After Chemotherapy

Advances in medical science in recent years have improved the lives of many people with devastating illnesses. Although motherhood is very important for many women, some are deprived of it because of exceptional conditions.

But a breakthrough was presented at the 34th annual meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology held in Barcelona, ​​Spain, offers hope for these cases because they have succeeded to create an artificial ovary that could help women to produce eggs in a natural way.

The technique was developed to help women who are facing cancer treatments and other serious illnesses that can potentially cause infertility.

The Copenhagen team has demonstrated that a laboratory-made ovary can keep human eggs alive for weeks, which is an important and crucial step.

Scientists have designed a scaffold in which cells at an early stage can develop functional ovarian follicles, small sacs filled with fluid that contains a woman's eggs. The artificial ovary would consist of a scaffold, which would come from the woman's own tissue or would be given, combined with her own follicles.

The researchers indicate that this could be a safer alternative to the current procedure for preserving fertility after severe medical treatments, which consist in extracting and freezing the ovarian tissue before the treatments.

Once treatment is complete, the tissue is replaced and women can have babies naturally. The disadvantage of this approach is that some types of cancer can invade ovarian tissue and this procedure would reintroduce cancer cells into the woman's body. As a result, physicians generally do not offer this option to high-risk patients.

The team tested the artificial ovary by implanting a container containing 20 human follicles in a mouse; The researchers showed how a quarter of the follicles survived for at least three weeks. Meanwhile, the growth of blood vessels around the implanted ovary was brought out to keep it nourished while under the mouse.

Dr. Susanne Pors, co-author of the research states that, despite the results observed so far represent an important advance, it will take many years before artificial ovaries become available as a clinical alternative.

In the words of Dr. Pors: "It could take five to ten years of work before the ovaries."

Researchers warn that implanted artificial ovaries can help, in addition to patients with cancer, women with other conditions requiring harsh therapies, such as multiple sclerosis and blood beta-thalassemia disorder, and may even work in women who experience early menopause.