Teen Girls Are Doing Well After Successful Organ Implant

Four teen girls born with rare genetic disorder who received successfully transplanted laboratory -grown vaginal-organs are functioning well years after successful surgeries, reported scientists in the journal the Lancet. The girls who were of the ages 13 and 18 years, underwent vaginal implant surgeries between 2005 and 2008. All of them had Mayer- Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome, a rare genetic condition in which vagina and uterus are underdeveloped or absent. At follow-up the organs were functioning normally and the girls surveyed expressed normal sexual desire. The vaginal organs were engineered with muscles and the epithelial cells from the biopsies of the women's genitals. The cells were taken from the tissues, grown, and put into a biodegradable material and then formed into the shape of vagina and fit to each patient. When the vagina is placed into the bodies of the patients, the nerves and blood vessels help expand it into tissues. The biodegradable material is absorbed into the body and cells form new structure and organ. "In addition, this study is one more example of how regenerative medicine strategies can be applied to a variety of tissues and organs," said the study director Dr Anthony Atala. Other researchers have also used similar procedures to create other body parts like windpipesm bladders and urethas.