Forskere 3D-printede humane testikelceller

Forskere i Canada British Columbia (UBC) bruger 3D-teknologi til at udskrive humane testikelceller og finder ud af, at de har de tidlige tegn på, at sæden producerer sæd, hvilket er første gang i verden. Forskerholdet af Dr. Ryan Flannigan, assisterende professor i UBC Urology Assistant, har en-dag, som giver en løsning til patienter, som i øjeblikket ikke er i stand til at behandle.

"15 percent of the couple suffer from infertility, at least half of them is caused by male factors." Flannigan said its laboratory established a Vancouver's prostate center in Vancouver General Hospital. We are printing testicular cells into a special structure that imitates the human anatomy with 3D printing technology, which we believe this is the best way to stimulate sperm generation. "Flannigan said, if success, this will open the new birth treatment door for those who have no other choice.

I menneskelige testikler produceres sæd af et lille rør kaldet et fint rør. I den mest alvorlige mandlige infertilitet-ikke-obstruktiv ikke-spermsygdom (NOA) findes sædceller i ejakulation på grund af reduktionen i sædceller produceret af disse små rørstrukturer. Selvom lægen i nogle tilfælde kan hjælpe NOA-patienter med at finde ekstremt sjældne sædceller ved operation, men Flannigan sagde kun halvdelen af ​​succesraten.

"Unfortunately, for the other half of patients, they have no choices, because we can't find sperm for them." Flannigan said, these is the patient who wants to help. In recent studies, researchers conducted biopsy for testis of NOA patients and collected stem cells. These cells were then cultured, and 3D was printed into a hollow tubular structure on the petri dish, similar to the fine elipes capable of producing sperm.

After 12 days, the research team found that these cells did not only survive, but also growing several special cells participating in sperm production, and there was significant improvements in the maintenance of stem cells - this is the early signs of sperm production capacity. The results of this study were recently published in "Plastic and Infertility Science".

"These cells survive and start differentiation, which is a huge milestone. Although there is still a long way to go, this makes our team full of hope." Flannigan said.

The team is currently committed to the "training" cells producing sperm. In order to do this, they exposed cells in different nutrients and growth factors, and fine-tuned their structural arrangements to promote interaction between cells. If these cells can produce sperm, these sperm may pass through in vitro fertilization Make the egg fertilization and provide a new birth treatment option for the couple.

Forskningsprojektet afslører også de genetiske og molekylære mekanismer, der fører til NOA. Flannigan-teamet har brugt en række enkelt-cellesekvenseringsteknikker til at forstå genekspressionen og karakteristika for hver celle og derefter beregne modellen for bedre at forstå årsagen til sygdommen og fastlægge en ny behandlingsplan. Dette arbejde kræver også et højt samarbejde, der involverer UBC-forskere inden for datalogi, matematik og teknik og andet internationalt samarbejde.

"We are increasingly learned that infertility may have many different reasons, and every case varies from person to person." Flannigan said, "Considering this, we are taking a personalization, precise Medical Methods - Extracting the cells from the patient, trying to understand its unique abnormal conditions, and then supported by 3D printing to overcome these original defects. "