Researchers have created the first artificial human ovary. The advance provides a potentially powerful new means for conducting fertility research and could also yield infertility treatments for cancer patients.
“An ovary is composed of three main cell types, and this is the first time that anyone has created a 3D tissue structure with triple cell line,” said Sandra Carson, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in the US.
Carson said that the ovary not only provides a living laboratory for investigating fundamental questions about how healthy ovaries work, but also can act as a testbed for seeing how problems, such as exposure to toxins or other chemicals, can disrupt egg maturation and health, reports the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics.
Clinically, the artificial ovary could play a role in preserving the fertility of women facing cancer treatment in the future, said Stephan Krotz, a Houston fertility doctor who is the paper’s lead author and a former fellow in Carson’s lab, said a Brown University release.
Immature eggs could be salvaged and frozen before the onset of chemotherapy or radiation, he said, and then matured outside the patient in the artificial ovary.
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