DOCTORS IMPLANT NEW VAGINAS IN 4 TEEN GIRLS

Doctors implant lab-grown vaginas in four teenage girls with rare disorder
The Mexican patients, who were all born without vaginas because of Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, are now young women and all have normal sex lives, according to a new study. Scientists say this procedure may provide a new option for those in need of vaginal reconstructive surgeries.

http://youtu.be/BStr2KZIEqo
Dr. Yuanyuan Zhang, an assistant professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, demonstrates the process to engineer a vaginal organ.
WAKE FOREST INSTITUTE FOR REGENERATIVE MEDICINE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS
Dr. Yuanyuan Zhang, an assistant professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, demonstrates the process to engineer a vaginal organ.
Researchers say they have successfully grown vaginas in a lab and implanted them into four Mexican teenagers, according to a new study.
The unidentified girls all had Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes a woman’s vagina and uterus to be underdeveloped or absent.
A team led by Dr. Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., took a small tissue sample from each patient’s genital area. The cells were then multiplied and placed on a biodegradable scaffold that was molded for each girl.
The patients were between 13 and 18 years old at the time of their surgeries, which were carried out between June 2005 and October 2008.
Even after eight years, the organs continued to function normally, according to the study published in the journal The Lancet.

Vaginas are among the latest body parts to be grown in a lab from the patient’s own cells. Here, Dr. Yuanyuan Zhang of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Scientists shows the process that was used in the study.
WAKE FOREST INSTITUTE FOR REGENERATIVE MEDICINE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS
Vaginas are among the latest body parts to be grown in a lab from the patient’s own cells. Here, Dr. Yuanyuan Zhang of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Scientists shows the process that was used in the study.
The patients, who are now young women, have been able to have normal sex lives, but it is unknown whether they can get pregnant, Atala said. Two of the four women have wombs.
Scientists said the treatment could potentially be used for patients with vaginal cancer or injuries.It may also provide another option for women who need vaginal reconstructive surgeries.
Other body parts, including windpipes, bladders and blood vessels, have all been grown in labs using patients’ own cells and successfully implanted as the field of regenerative medicine grows.
In another recent study, Swiss scientists reported that they have also been able to create working nostrils in labs for five individuals with skin cancer on their noses.
UK Scientists Make Body Parts in Lab
Scientists in a London hospital are growing noses, ears and blood vessels in a bold attempt to make body parts using stem cells.

“It’s not a trivial thing to engineer a functional tissue,” the University Hospital Basel’s Ivan Martin said.