A team of researchers successfully implanted 4 young women with laboratory grown vaginas for the first time, representing an important breakthrough in regenerative medicine.
The women, aged 13-18 at the time of implantation, were born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, a rare genetic disease that left them with underdeveloped or absent vaginal organs. They had no sexual function and were unable to menstruate.
Now, 8 years after the first operation, all 4 women reported healthy sexual function and 2 have uteruses and could potentially get pregnant, the Wall Street Journal reported.
There’s a long way to go before lab-grown organs are available on the healthcare market, but success in the new studies may spur more research.
"This pilot study is the first to demonstrate that vaginal organs can be constructed in the lab and used successfully in humans," lead researcher Dr. Anthony Atala of Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine said in prepared remarks. "This may represent a new option for patients who require vaginal reconstructive surgeries. In addition, this study is one more example of how regenerative medicine strategies can be applied to a variety of tissues and organs."
Follow-up exams and surveys found that the engineered tissue was "indistinguishable" from native cells. The patients reported normal sexual function, including desire and pain-free intercourse.
The scientists engineered the organs by growing the patent’s own cells on a scaffold made of tissue from pig’s intestine. The cultivated tissue was shaped into a vagina and implanted at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City.
The patients’ bodies gradually embraced the new tissue and new nerves and blood vessels formed around it.
The study was reported this week in the journal The Lancet, alongside another report of scientists implanting patients with engineered nostrils that operate as well as natural organs.
"These two Lancet studies show that those who practice conventional tissue reconstruction and organ transplantation, and the health-care and commercial industries which support them, should finally be taking the quirky minnows of tissue engineering quite seriously," Martin Birchall and Alexander Seifalian wrote in a commentary accompanying the Lancet publication. "Disruptive innovation might be nigh.
