Scientists from China have illustrated new reconstructable uterus-derived materials (RUMs) enabling nearly full recovery from severe uterine injury.
Reconstructable uterus-derived materials (RUMs) for uterus recovery towards efficient live births in rats. a. Fabrication of RUMs for uterus recovery; b. and c. gbhtrrrrrrrrrrThe RUMs for the treatment of rats with severe uterine injury. Beyond natural barrier for blocking-up the adhesion, the RUMs can also secrete a large number of cytokines and signaling molecules to improve uterine microenvironment for promoting uterus recovery. Image Credit: Junbing Fan.
The study results were published in the journal Advanced Materials.
With the help of RUMs, the scientists from the Southern Medical University and the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (TIPC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences almost recovered the severely damaged uterus of rats. This helps normal pregnancy and live birth.
Currently, uterine factor infertility seems to be highly prevalent, and intrauterine adhesion is the major cause. Present clinical strategies like hysteroscopic transcervical resection of adhesion, physical barriers (intrauterine balloons and contraceptive devices) and even hormone drugs do not seem to repair uteruses damaged by intrauterine adhesion.
In this study, the RUMs were fabricated by scientists by seeding chorionic villi mesenchymal stem cells into a uterus-derived extracellular matrix (ECM). Being different from conventional ECM scaffolds, the RUMs can be developed into various states (solid-state or liquid state) and shapes (triangular-prismatic, cuboidal, and cubical) to address different requirements.
As per the uterus’ structural feature, the RUM patches and injectable RUM gel could be fabricated for the damaged uterus’ recovery.
The uterus is considered to be a hollow muscle organ made up of the endometrium, perimetrium and myometrium. The injectable RUM gel serves as a natural barrier to penetrate the endometrial cavity and can thus help avoid intrauterine adhesion. It encourages endometrial regeneration, angiogenesis and the rebuilding of muscle collagen.
The RUM patch has been employed on the uterine wall to expedite wound healing. At the time of this process, a range of cytokines and signaling molecules have been secreted by RUMs to improve the damaged microenvironment and promote uterine recovery.
Following recovery from treatment, the rat uteruses can aid fetal development, normal pregnancy and live birth as in normal rats.
Moreover, 15.2 g of ECM powder could be generated from a pig uterus. This is sufficient to treat nearly 380 rats with severe uterine injury and indicates great prospects for clinical application.
This study was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Journal Reference:
Yi, X., et al. (2021) Reconstructable Uterus-Derived Materials for Uterus Recovery toward Efficient Live Births. Advanced Materials. doi.org/10.1002/adma.202106510.
Source: https://english.cas.cn/