3-D Printed Ovaries Produce Healthy Offspring
Reporter: Irina Robu, PhD
Each year about 120,000 organs are transplanted from one human being to another and most of the time is a living volunteer. But lack of suitable donors, predominantly means the supply of such organs is inadequate. Countless people consequently die waiting for a transplant which has led researchers to study the question of how to build organs from scratch.
One promising approach is to print them, but “bioprinting” remains largely experimental. Nevertheless, bioprinted tissue is before now being sold for drug testing, and the first transplantable tissues are anticipated to be ready for use in a few years’ time. The first 3D printed organ includes bioprosthetic ovaries which are constructed of 3D printed scaffolds that have immature eggs and have been successful in boosting hormone production and restoring fertility was developed by Teresa K. Woodruff, a reproductive scientist and director of the Women’s Health Research Institute at Feinberg School of Medicine, at Northwestern University, in Illinois.
What sets apart these bioprosthetic ovaries is the architecture of the scaffold. The material is made of gelatin made from broken-down collagen that is safe to humans which is self-supporting and can lead to building multiple layers.
The 3-D printed “scaffold” or “skeleton” is implanted into a female and its pores can be used to optimize how follicles, or immature eggs, get wedged within the scaffold. The scaffold supports the survival of the mouse’s immature egg cells and the cells that produce hormones to boost production. The open construction permits room for the egg cells to mature and ovulate, blood vessels to form within the implant enabling the hormones to circulate and trigger lactation after giving birth. The purpose of this scaffold is to recapitulate how an ovary would function.
The scientists’ only objective for developing the bioprosthetic ovaries was to help reestablish fertility and hormone production in women who have suffered adult cancer treatments and now have bigger risks of infertility and hormone-based developmental issues.
SOURCES
Printed human body parts could soon be available for transplant
https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21715638-how-build-organs-scratch
3D printed ovaries produce healthy offspring giving hope to infertile women
Brave new world: 3D-printed ovaries produce healthy offspring
3-D-printed scaffolds restore ovary function in infertile mice
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317485.php
Our Grandkids May Be Born From 3D-Printed Ovaries
http://gizmodo.com/these-mice-gave-birth-using-3d-printed-ovaries-1795237820
This is very insightful. There is no doubt that there is the bias you refer to. 42 years ago, when I was postdocing in biochemistry/enzymology before completing my residency in pathology, I knew that there were very influential mambers of the faculty, who also had large programs, and attracted exceptional students. My mentor, it was said (although he was a great writer), could draft a project on toilet paper and call the NIH. It can’t be true, but it was a time in our history preceding a great explosion. It is bizarre for me to read now about eNOS and iNOS, and about CaMKII-á, â, ã, ä – isoenzymes. They were overlooked during the search for the genome, so intermediary metabolism took a back seat. But the work on protein conformation, and on the mechanism of action of enzymes and ligand and coenzyme was just out there, and became more important with the research on signaling pathways. The work on the mechanism of pyridine nucleotide isoenzymes preceded the work by Burton Sobel on the MB isoenzyme in heart. The Vietnam War cut into the funding, and it has actually declined linearly since.
A few years later, I was an Associate Professor at a new Medical School and I submitted a proposal that was reviewed by the Chairman of Pharmacology, who was a former Director of NSF. He thought it was good enough. I was a pathologist and it went to a Biochemistry Review Committee. It was approved, but not funded. The verdict was that I would not be able to carry out the studies needed, and they would have approached it differently. A thousand young investigators are out there now with similar letters. I was told that the Department Chairmen have to build up their faculty. It’s harder now than then. So I filed for and received 3 patents based on my work at the suggestion of my brother-in-law. When I took it to Boehringer-Mannheim, they were actually clueless.