Scientists try to build a better ‘womb’ for IVF
(sz) In a University of Tokyo laboratory, a pipette-wielding technician delicately positions 10 mouse eggs on a razor-thin microchip lined with a “bed” of cultured uterus tissue.
Next, the technician adds sperm cells, fertilizing the eggs. Three tiny tubes snake from the silicone device, and over the next 48 to 72 hours, a pulsing micro-pump washes the early embryos with rhythmic waves of a culture fluid that helps them grow, in an attempt to simulate what happens in the womb. Then, the embryos are removed, and the healthy ones are implanted into the actual wombs of mother mice.
Teruo Fujii and his colleagues believe their “womb-on-a-chip” is superior to growing embryos in the static environment of a Petri dish, the way in-vitro fertilization clinics now prepare embryos for implantation into a mother’s womb. Eventually, they hope it will lead to better outcomes for infertile women.
“This is a new way to culture embryos in an environment that is closer to what happens inside the body,” he said in an interview. Although results in mice so far are only slightly better than with the current method, Fujii dreams of building an automated device that takes in eggs and sperm at one end and delivers healthy human embryos out the other with near-assembly line results.
Others are pursuing even more futuristic goals. Cornell University scientists built an artificial womb from cultured layers of mouse uterine tissue in 2003. Although embryos implanted and began to grow, they didn’t survive, and while the studies continue, they have been placed on the back burner. more…
From: »The Boston Globe«