Landmark achievement in organ transplant: New vagina, anyone?
Scientists have grown and successfully transplanted four vaginas in the latest medical achievement for regenerative medicine. Four women who were born with abnormal or missing…
Vaginas are the latest in laboratory-grown organs. (Shutterstock)
Scientists have grown and successfully transplanted four vaginas in the latest medical achievement for regenerative medicine. Four women who were born with abnormal or missing vaginas received laboratory-grown implants cultivated from their own cells.
According to the scientists responsible for the feat, vaginal re-creation is the latest on the list of organs grown in a laboratory setting and successfully transplanted into a human. Prior to this event, only bladders, urethras and tracheas had been recreated from a person’s own cells.
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All four of the women in the study were born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, reported Reuters, a condition which is characterized by a missing vagina or incomplete vaginal canal. Women born with MRKH may also have a collection of symptoms including an absent uterus and cervix, kidney, hearing loss, and a possible spinal abnormality such as curvature of the spine.
Vaginas are the latest in laboratory-grown organs. (Shutterstock)
According to the Boston Children’s Hospital, MRKH is classified as a vaginal agenesis, or any congenital abnormality of the reproductive tract that affects a woman’s sexuality, ability to have sex, or fertility.
Because women with this condition often suffer from sexual identity issues, the new ability to create a transplantable vagina offers a way for them to feel whole. Genetically, women with MRKH are female though they may feel unfeminine because of their incomplete reproductive system.
For the four women in the research study, follow-up reports have indicated the implanted vaginas are fully functional and have grown with the women as they have matured. The organs were transplanted during the study participants’ teen years and have been monitored as the women grew into adulthood.
Though it is not yet certain if any of the women in the study will be able to have children, they all report normal sexual function and 2 of the 4 who had a working uterus also report normal menstruation.
Thus far none of the issues seen with traditional vaginal reconstructive surgeries have been seen; prior to this medical advancement, women were constructed new vaginas with the use of grafts from skin or intestinal tissue. Unfortunately, intestinal tissue produces an excess of mucus, which can cause problems with odor, and conventional skin, meanwhile, can collapse, said Dr. Anthony Atala who headed up the laboratory vagina project.
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Atala told Reuters it only took approximately 5 weeks for the organ to be grown in the lab and shaped to each woman’s anatomy. After transplant, within a six-month period the laboratory vaginas were almost indistinguishable from a normal organ.
The team will continue to monitor the women for eight years post-surgery to document their progress. Researchers will be looking to see how functionality remains for the lab-grown vaginas and if they will continue to grown and change as the women age. One of the main areas of interest is blood vessel development, as experts are unsure if the body will eventually grow new blood vessels throughout a transplanted vagina.
