BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Israeli scientists have successfully produced embryos from ovaries that were frozen, thawed and transplanted in sheep in a project, providing hope the procedure could one day be used for women at risk of losing their fertility.
Researchers at the Institute of Animal Science, Agriculture Research Organisation in Bet Dagan, said on Thursday that the research showed it was possible to restore ovarian function following a transplant in a large animal.
The breakthrough, revealed yesterday, raises the possibility of women facing early infertility or having chemotherapy preserving whole ovaries for future use.
Yehudit Natham, of the biotech company Core Dynamics, which funded the project, said: "We hope it will not take more than a few years for this to become a practicable option for women, such as young cancer patients, who would otherwise have been left infertile."
Dr. Arav said the new technique used on sheep would be much easier in women because their blood vessels feeding the ovaries are much larger and easier to work with than are those in the animals.
¡°It's a huge opportunity for women who are going into chemotherapy and radiotherapy and they lose most of their eggs in the follicles,¡± he said. ¡°With this way, it would be possible to remove one ovary previous to the treatment, freeze it in liquid nitrogen and after everything is OK and the treatment is done, it would be possible to put it back and to get normal function.¡±
If the ovary is removed and frozen before the treatment begins and transplanted afterwards patients may still be able to use their own eggs to have children.
Dr. Arav said the freezing process also could be used to store donor organs for longer periods, so they don't go to waste while tissue and blood-type matching is done and the organs are tested for communicable diseases.
Donor hearts, for instance, are relatively rare and can only be kept on ice for about four hours, limiting screening and transportation time, he said. If we were able to keep organs long-term, it would be a revolution in this area. I believe it will also increase the number of donor organs.¡±Enditem
(Agencies)
|
