Women’s health in a petri dish
The new 3-D technology — called Evatar — developed using human and mouse tissue, also provides a novel way for scientists to test new drugs for safety and effectiveness on the female reproductive system. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- Researchers predict that Evatar will also help in the understanding of diseases of the female reproductive system such as endometriosis and fibroids (which affect up to 80 per cent of women), and cancer and infertility.
- According to the scientists, the new technology works largely because a universal medium that acts in the same way as blood and circulates between each of the organ systems was developed.
- The female reproductive tract is required for the production of ova, secretion of sex hormones and the maintenance of pregnancy throughout the gestation of healthy offspring.
A palm-sized replica of the female reproductive tract has been developed by researchers to help study diseases that affect these organs and tissues. The new 3-D technology — called Evatar — developed using human and mouse tissue, also provides a novel way for scientists to test new drugs for safety and effectiveness on the female reproductive system.
Although the device does not look exactly like a womb, researchers say it could eventually change the future of research and treatment of diseases in women’s reproductive organs. Researchers predict that Evatar will also help in the understanding of diseases of the female reproductive system such as endometriosis and fibroids (which affect up to 80 per cent of women), and cancer and infertility.
The device, which resembles a small cube, contains 3-D models of collections of living cells from the fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix and vagina (all human cells), and the ovaries (taken from mice).
Results from the research were published in Nature Communications. “This is nothing short of a revolutionary technology. It will help us develop individualised treatments and see how women may metabolise drugs differently from men,” said lead investigator Teresa Woodruff, a reproductive scientist and director of the Women’s Health Research Institute at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in the US.
RESPONSE TO HORMONES
“It is the ultimate personalised medicine, a model of your body for testing drugs,” Woodruff added. The cubes are connected together with small tubes which allow a special fluid to flow through the entire system, like blood, meaning the “mini organs” can “communicate” with each other using hormones, mimicking what happens in a woman’s body during a typical 28-day human menstrual cycle. One of the cubes represents the human liver which plays an important role because it metabolises drugs, said the scientists.
“Understanding how the uterus responds to hormones is really important. There is no animal model for a lot of the stuff that we study,” said Dr Ji-Yong Julie Kim. Tests suggested that the tissues in the system responded to the cyclical ebb and flow of hormones, similar to what happens in the female body.
According to the scientists, the new technology works largely because a universal medium that acts in the same way as blood and circulates between each of the organ systems was developed.
“We reasoned that organs in the body are in one medium — the blood — so we created a simple version of the blood and allowed the tissues to communicate via the medium,” Woodruff said.
The female reproductive tract is required for the production of ova, secretion of sex hormones and the maintenance of pregnancy throughout the gestation of healthy offspring.
The main organs of the female reproductive tract are the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus and cervix. Each organ has major responsibilities that are either autonomous (for example, maturation of oocytes and gestation of the foetus) or interdependent, such as providing hormonal support for the tracts through which gametes (eggs and sperm) travel and a location for the developing embryo to implant.
“Because of the intimate relationship between the cells of each organ and between organs, toxicology studies in the female reproductive tract have been difficult to design,” the study states. The work is part of a project to create the entire human “body on a chip”.
The ultimate goal is to use stem cells of an individual patient and create a personalised model of their reproductive system. In 10 years, this technology, called microfluidics, will be the prevailing technology for biological research.
