Eggs recreated in vitro to treat infertility

Washington, October 3 (ANI): Surgeons at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC, have moved a promising step closer to helping infertile, premenopausal women to produce enough eggs to become pregnant.

They have been able to stimulate ovarian cell production using an in vitro rat model, and observed as the cells matured into very early-stage eggs that could possibly be fertilized.

"While conventional hormone replacement therapy is able to maintain female sexual characteristics, it's unable to restore ovarian tissue function, which includes the production of eggs," the study's authors reported.

Ovarian tissue function is critical for premenopausal women who desire to conceive.

Several fertility disorders can leave premenopausal women without an adequate amount of eggs. These disorders can also prevent a woman's ovaries from secreting enough of the hormones that stimulate egg production.

Events such as ovarian operations, an injury, or radiation therapy for cancer can interfere with ovarian function, according to Anthony Atala, MD, FACS, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and chair of the department of urology at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Although the causes may vary, about 10 percent of childbearing-age women struggle with infertility, meaning that these women try for at least one year but are not able to conceive.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the most common cause of infertility in premenopausal women is polycystic ovarian syndrome-an imbalance of sex hormones. This disorder causes irregular ovulation and higher levels of male hormones in affected women.

According to Dr. Atala, the goal of this study was to spur the ovaries to produce the female sex hormones estrogen and progesterone as well as stimulate egg production.

The surgeons extracted ovarian cells from three-week old female rats, which would be equivalent to about 25 years old in humans. The cells were isolated in a culture of nutrient-dense growth factors for one week. Next, the cells were placed under a collagen gel that allows them to grow three dimensionally instead of in a single layer. The researchers then assessed cell growth, hormone production, and gene expression in the specimens.

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Eggs recreated in vitro to treat infertility