Italian Doctor Reconstructs a Vagina Using Stem Cells
by Laurence Wooster | July 31, 2007
Reconstructed vagina
from stem cells gives
MRKHS patients hope
(click to enlarge)
from stem cells gives
MRKHS patients hope
(click to enlarge)
Dr. Cinzia Marchese of Rome's Policlinico Umberto I hospital has used adult stem cells to reconstruct vaginas for two women born with a rare deformity, becoming the first to fabricate vaginal tissue.
The first patient, a 28-year old woman, began a series of operations a year ago and now has a health vagina; the second patient, a 17-year old girl, went under Marchese's knife in May.
The biggest challenge for Dr. Marchese was to recreate the mucosal tissue found inside the vagina. Mucosal tissue is also present in the mouth and nose.
The two women had a condition called Mayer-Von Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKHS), also known as Mullerian (or vaginal) agenesis, which affects an estimated one in 5,000 female infants. Girls suffering from MRKHS are born with no vagina, and though secondary sexual characteristics develop normally, patients cannot have sexual intercourse or become pregnant.
Past efforts to treat patients suffering from MRKHS have included the use of vaginal dilators as well as surgical procedures. The two most prevalent are the McIndoe procedure, which uses a skin graft to create a vagina, and the Vecchietti procedure, which uses laporoscopic instruments to connect a bead placed at the vagina's entrance with a traction device placed on the abdomen. Over the course of a week, the thread connecting the bead and traction device is tightened, applying constant pressure to the vagina.
Marchese's technique is markedly different. "What we do is to take a little biopsy of 0.5 cm from the place the vagina should be, " Marchese said. Marchese, a coauthor of an April 2007 article in the Journal of Cellular Physiology on the differentiation of stem cells, used an enzyme to break down the tissue from the biopsy and then let the immature cells generate new mucosal tissue. It took about 15 days to get a thick enough layer to transplant into the patients, Marchese said.
The first patient, a 28-year old woman, began a series of operations a year ago and now has a health vagina; the second patient, a 17-year old girl, went under Marchese's knife in May.
The biggest challenge for Dr. Marchese was to recreate the mucosal tissue found inside the vagina. Mucosal tissue is also present in the mouth and nose.
The two women had a condition called Mayer-Von Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKHS), also known as Mullerian (or vaginal) agenesis, which affects an estimated one in 5,000 female infants. Girls suffering from MRKHS are born with no vagina, and though secondary sexual characteristics develop normally, patients cannot have sexual intercourse or become pregnant.
Past efforts to treat patients suffering from MRKHS have included the use of vaginal dilators as well as surgical procedures. The two most prevalent are the McIndoe procedure, which uses a skin graft to create a vagina, and the Vecchietti procedure, which uses laporoscopic instruments to connect a bead placed at the vagina's entrance with a traction device placed on the abdomen. Over the course of a week, the thread connecting the bead and traction device is tightened, applying constant pressure to the vagina.
Marchese's technique is markedly different. "What we do is to take a little biopsy of 0.5 cm from the place the vagina should be, " Marchese said. Marchese, a coauthor of an April 2007 article in the Journal of Cellular Physiology on the differentiation of stem cells, used an enzyme to break down the tissue from the biopsy and then let the immature cells generate new mucosal tissue. It took about 15 days to get a thick enough layer to transplant into the patients, Marchese said.
