Four young women born with abnormal or missing vaginas have gained full sexual function after scientists engineered and implanted new laboratory-grown organs created from the patients’ own cells, researchers reported Thursday.
It’s the first time vaginas constructed on scaffolds outside the body have been used successfully to treat a rare and distressing medical condition known as Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, or MRKHS — but it also holds potential for women who are victims of cancer or trauma, said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
“Basically, what we do is engineer organs for conditions which are challenging,” said Atala, whose team created bladders that shocked the world in 2006 as the first lab-grown organs successfully implanted in humans.
In the new study, published Thursday in the journal The Lancet, Atala and colleagues report that four girls from Mexico City, Mexico, born with MRKHS received custom-made vaginas implanted between June 2005 and October 2008.
“There are other options out there, but they’re not ideal,” Atala said. “For us, there is no better source than the patients’ own cells.”
The scientists took samples of the patients’ cells and then grew them in a federally certified tissue lab. Those cells were placed on a biodegradable scaffolding hand-sewn in the shape of vaginas, Atala said. Muscle cells were seeded on the outside of the structures, and epithelial cells, those that line the bodies’ cavities, were placed on the inside.
The new organs were allowed to mature, and then implanted into a canal created in each patient’s pelvis and sutured in place. Within six months, the biodegradable scaffolding had dissolved and the new organs had taken hold so thoroughly they were indistinguishable from native tissue, the study found.
The patients were teenagers — ages 13 to 18 — when the surgeries occurred and, after as long as eight years, tissue biopsies, MRI scans and internal exams showed that the new organs were functioning normally. Standard tests of female sexual function reported normal responses, including desire, arousal and pain-free intercourse. Two of the girls began to menstruate. Theoretically, they are able to have children — and would like to, Atala added.
“It’s been rewarding to see them do so well,” said Atala, who has been researching creation and uses of lab-built vaginas in animals such as mice and rabbits since the early 1990s. “It does change their lives. It really does. It’s a challenging problem to have. You’re dealing not just with the anatomical defect, but making sure they do well emotionally.”
Source:
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/lab-grown-private-parts-vagina-implants-cure-rare-disorder-n77136
