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Home > Augmentation > The Ovary of the Future May Be a 3D-Printed Prosthetic That Restores Fertility

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Home›Augmentation›The Ovary of the Future May Be a 3D-Printed Prosthetic That Restores Fertility

The Ovary of the Future May Be a 3D-Printed Prosthetic That Restores Fertility

By M. Christian
May 25, 2017
2628
0

Mice trials offer glimmer of hope to women struggling to conceive.

The ovary of the future may be a bioprosthetic that lets infertile women conceive.

Over the last few years, 3D printing has gone from a high-tech hobby to a promising new manufacturing process that is promising to change how homes are designed and built.

It has also begun to revolutionize medical science, allowing doctors to create not only inorganic implants but also grow actual human tissue.

For women struggling with infertility, the field of bioengineering offers significant hope. Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and McCormick School of Engineering have successfully developed a procedure for 3D printing artificial ovaries.

First mice, then humans?

The technique uses a bioprosthetic framework, which is a type of scaffold, to house fertilized eggs in mice. Remarkably, it has allowed mice to successfully carry their offspring to term.

Reproductive scientist and director of the Women’s Health Research Institute at Feinberg, Teresa K. Woodruff, said of the new process: “Using bioengineering, instead of transplanting from a cadaver, to create organ structures that function and restore the health of that tissue for that person, is the holy grail of bioengineering for regenerative medicine.”

After being 3D printed and then surgically implanted, the scaffold allows the embryo to grow and encourages the development of blood vessels.

Using biological hydrogel

The researchers say the material used for the artificial ovaries is the key to the experiment’s success. Instead of using, for example, a standard form of medical grade plastic, the team used a biological hydrogel formulated from broken-down collagen.

“Most hydrogels are very weak, since they’re made up of mostly water, and will often collapse on themselves,” said Ramille Shah, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at McCormick.

“But we found a gelatin temperature that allows it to be self-supporting, not collapse, and lead to building multiple layers. No one else has been able to print gelatin with such well-defined and self-supported geometry.”

Ending infertility

The main goal of the project is to give infertile women, such as cancer survivors, the ability to carry babies to term.

In addition to cancer survivors, there is every possibility that the technique could one day be used to help others with fertility problems. It is even conceivable that it could even be used to create a kind of ovary for those who have undergone sexual reassignment surgery. However, there would have to be donated eggs present for it to work. Until, that is, technology allows the creation of viable eggs no matter the biology of the patient.

Hope for tomorrow

If anything, the work of these researchers shows that—like 3D printing itself—we may be seeing exciting new developments spin off from their work on artificial ovaries that could give hope to women and couples who have struggled to have children.

Image sources: NorthwesternU, Lisa Roe

M. Christian

M.Christian (they/them) loves nothing better than exploring the intersections of sex and technology—and speculating on the future of both. A highly regarded erotica writer they have six novels,12 collections, 100+ short stories, and 25 anthologies as an editor to their name. Their non-fiction regularly appears in many sites, but they're most proud of being a regular contributor to Future of Sex.

Of their erotic fiction, Tristan Taormino said that “M.Christian is a literary stylist of the highest caliber: smart, funny, frightening, sexy—there's nothing [they] can't write about… and brilliantly.”

Reflecting their unique ability to sympathetically and convincingly write for a range of genders and sexual orientations, their stories have appeared in multiple editions of Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, The Mammoth Books of Erotica, and others. Their collection of gay erotic fiction, Dirty Words, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

While a majority of their stories have been collected into books like Dirty Words, their fondness for combining sex and science fiction is clearly evident in collections that include Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, Skin Effect Effect, Bachelor Machine, and Hard Drive: The Best Sci-Fi Erotica of M.Christian.

As a novelist, M.Christian’s versatility is on full display with Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Brushes, Painted Doll; and the somewhat controversial queer BDSM/horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth, and Me2.

M.Christian has worked on the industry’s production side as an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books and as a Publisher for Digital Parchment Services. The latter dedicated to celebrating the works of science-fiction legends such as William Rotsler, Jerome Bixby, Jody Scott, Arthur Byron Cover, Ernest Hogan, and James Van Hise.

Covering topics like BDSM safety, sexual education, senior sexuality concerns, queer and gender issues, plus reviewing a variety of sex tech products, M.Christian’s non-fiction has appeared on sites like Kinkly, Tickle.Life, Sexpert, Queer Majority, Sex for Every Body, and—of course—their ongoing work for Future of Sex.

If there’s anything M.Christian enjoys more than writing, it’s teaching. A featured presenter, sometimes with their friend Ralph Greco Jr, at national sex and BDSM events, they have lectured on kink play (with an emphasis on safety), polyamory, boosting sexual creativity, and erotica writing--for beginners or those wanting to go pro.

M.Christian is a cohost on two popular sex-education podcasts: Love’s Outer Limits with Dr. Amy Marsh and Licking Non-Vanilla with Ralph Greco, Jr.
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