Tag: medical breakthroughs

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Doctors claim first mom-daughter uterus transplant

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STOCKHOLM — Two Swedish women are carrying the wombs of their mothers after what doctors called the world’s first mother-to-daughter uterus transplants.

Specialists at the University of Goteborg completed the surgery over the weekend without complications, but say they won’t consider the procedures successful unless the women achieve pregnancy after their observation period ends a year from now.

“We are not going to call it a complete success until this results in children,” said Michael Olausson, one of the Swedish surgeons told The Associated Press. “That’s the best proof.” Read full article.

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Britain considers three-parent fertility treatments

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LONDON — Britain launched a public consultation Monday to ask whether controversial “three-parent” fertility treatments should be available to families hoping to avoid passing on incurable diseases.

The potential treatments, now only at research stage in laboratories in Britain and the United States, would involve implanting genetically modified embryos into women for the first time.

The techniques have become known as three-parent in vitro fertilization (IVF) because the offspring would have genes from a mother, a father and from a female donor.

They are designed to help families with mitochondrial diseases — incurable inherited conditions passed down the maternal line that affect around one in 6,500 children worldwide. Read full article.

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Sperm Precursor Cells Made in Lab Could One Day Restore Male Fertility

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(Medical Xpress)—Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) can be coaxed into becoming precursor sperm cells, suggesting that it might be possible one day to restore fertility for sterile males with an easily obtained skin sample, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Their findings are available today in the online version of Cell Reports. Read full article.
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Sperm ‘Grown’ From Skin Cells Could Help Male Fertility

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A breakthough in aiding male infertility may have been made as researchers ‘grow’ early stage sperm from human skin cells.

Scientists at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine carried out research to see whether they could induce adult cells and make them develop as a different type of cell.

The findings could greatly help male infertility and the increase the chance of childhood cancer sufferers being able to father children. Read full article.

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Noninvasive Embryo Selection Forecast for IVF

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SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. – Unique protein signatures in the media surrounding embryos may soon provide a noninvasive means of identifying viability and aneuploidy, Dr. William B. Schoolcraft predicted at a conference on in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer sponsored by the University of California, Los Angeles.

Biopsies performed during preimplantation genetic diagnosis or comprehensive chromosome screening are “very invasive procedures” that are comparable to surgery or a forceps delivery, said Dr. Schoolcraft.

Removal of the embryo from an incubator, exposure to the heat of a laser, and traumatic manipulation may cause subtle harm, resulting in short- or long-term complications, he added.

But fascinating developments in the laboratory have confirmed dynamic, day-by-day evolutions in the pattern of proteins that are taken up – and secreted – by embryos in culture, providing evidence of distinctive signatures indicating viability, gene expression, and prospects for implantation, Dr. Schoolcraft noted.

To date, his group has identified more than 250 proteins in spent media from embryos, 74 of which are uniquely expressed in that environment.

“Some are excreted only by early embryos, some by embryos throughout preimplantation development, and most interestingly, some proteins are just excreted by embryos on day 3 to day 5, suggesting they might be markers for viability,” said Dr. Schoolcraft, medical director of the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, Lone Tree.

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Ovary transplant could put menopause ‘on ice’

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Women will be able to give birth in old age following an ovary transplant breakthrough that means they can postpone menopause until well after their 50s.

The technique to remove parts of an ovary, store them for decades and then transplant them, could effectively put menopause “on ice”, doctors have said. Only physical ability to carry a baby would prevent women from becoming mothers, meaning they would no longer have to think about the “biological clock”.

A conference in Istanbul was told that 28 babies had been born to infertile women who had ovary tissue transplants, and that most of the children were conceived naturally without the need for IVF or drugs.

Dr Sherman Silber, an American surgeon who has been involved in transplants for 11 women at a hospital in St Louis, Missouri, said: “A woman born today has a 50 per cent chance of living to 100. That means they are going to be spending half of their lives post-menopause.

“You could have grafts removed as a young woman and then have the first replaced as you approach menopausal age. You could then put a slice back every decade.

“Some women might want to go through the menopause, but others might not.”

Scientists said the treatment could also have health benefits, by avoiding the increased risk of osteoporosis and heart disease linked to menopause. They admitted, however, it may raise the risk of breast and womb cancer.

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Novel Progestin Nestorone, Testosterone Promising as Transdermal Male Contraceptive

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HOUSTON – Applying transdermal gels containing off-label testosterone and an experimental nonandrogenic progestin showed promise as a form of reversible contraception for men in a randomized, double-blind, controlled pilot study in 99 men.

Healthy male volunteers were randomized in three groups to apply gels containing 10 g of testosterone plus placebo or testosterone plus either 8 mg or 12 mg of Nestorone, an investigational synthetic nonandrogenic progestin. They were asked to apply the gels daily for 20-24 weeks, and 56 complied.

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