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Womb transplants 'on the way in two years'
By Daniel Martin
Last updated at 9:54 AM on 22nd October 2009
The breakthrough could bring motherhood closer for thousands of women in the UK.
British scientists are a significant step closer to carrying out the world's first successful womb transplant, they said yesterday.
It will bring hope to the 15,000 women of childbearing age in the UK born without a womb or who had it removed because of cancer or another disease.
Researchers have proved for the first time that it is possible successfully to transplant a womb with a reliable blood supply which lasts long enough to bear children.
The new technique was carried out on rabbits, but those behind it believe the first human transplants could take place in two years if they can raise funds to develop their research.
At present the only options available to a woman without a womb who wants children are adoption or surrogacy.
A womb transplant would allow the woman to bear her own child using her partner's sperm and her own egg or a donated one.
However, the surgeon behind the breakthrough says his research is stalled because he cannot get funding from medical research bodies to carry out further studies.
Richard Smith, a gynaeological surgeon at Hammersmith Hospital in West London, has had to put in £20,000 of his own money to fund his research.
Later this month he will launch a charity, Uterine Transplant UK, to raise the £250,000 needed to take it forward.
Mr Smith, who presented his findings at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Atlanta, said he had been approached by dozens of women desperate for a new womb.
Surgeons in Saudi Arabia gave a woman a donated womb in 2000, but it withered after three months because the blood vessels used to connect it were too narrow and became blocked by clots.
Mr Smith says he has found a way of giving the womb a reliable long-term blood supply. It involves transplanting the womb using a ' vascular patch technique' which connects major blood vessels, including the aorta, which are much wider than those used before.
His most recent study involved five donor rabbits and five recipients operated on at the Royal Veterinary College in London.
Two recipient rabbits lived to ten months and examinations after death showed the transplants were a success.
Mr Smith said: 'There are certain technical issues to be ironed out but I think we have cracked how to carry out a successful graft that's properly vascularised.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health....ekRopEx
By Daniel Martin
Last updated at 9:54 AM on 22nd October 2009
The breakthrough could bring motherhood closer for thousands of women in the UK.
British scientists are a significant step closer to carrying out the world's first successful womb transplant, they said yesterday.
It will bring hope to the 15,000 women of childbearing age in the UK born without a womb or who had it removed because of cancer or another disease.
Researchers have proved for the first time that it is possible successfully to transplant a womb with a reliable blood supply which lasts long enough to bear children.
The new technique was carried out on rabbits, but those behind it believe the first human transplants could take place in two years if they can raise funds to develop their research.
At present the only options available to a woman without a womb who wants children are adoption or surrogacy.
A womb transplant would allow the woman to bear her own child using her partner's sperm and her own egg or a donated one.
However, the surgeon behind the breakthrough says his research is stalled because he cannot get funding from medical research bodies to carry out further studies.
Richard Smith, a gynaeological surgeon at Hammersmith Hospital in West London, has had to put in £20,000 of his own money to fund his research.
Later this month he will launch a charity, Uterine Transplant UK, to raise the £250,000 needed to take it forward.
Mr Smith, who presented his findings at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Atlanta, said he had been approached by dozens of women desperate for a new womb.
Surgeons in Saudi Arabia gave a woman a donated womb in 2000, but it withered after three months because the blood vessels used to connect it were too narrow and became blocked by clots.
Mr Smith says he has found a way of giving the womb a reliable long-term blood supply. It involves transplanting the womb using a ' vascular patch technique' which connects major blood vessels, including the aorta, which are much wider than those used before.
His most recent study involved five donor rabbits and five recipients operated on at the Royal Veterinary College in London.
Two recipient rabbits lived to ten months and examinations after death showed the transplants were a success.
Mr Smith said: 'There are certain technical issues to be ironed out but I think we have cracked how to carry out a successful graft that's properly vascularised.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health....ekRopEx
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