The first 6 uterine transplants in 2012

There will be 5 to 6 cases of uterine transplantation done in early 2012 in Sweden. If successful, this will be a breakthrough in medical history.

Transplanting a complex uterine organ that has changed dramatically during pregnancy is still a major challenge in modern medicine, although scientists have long been able to transfer a wide range of organs from one person to another. other. A group of Swedish medical experts will most likely become the first to conquer this medical advance if they successfully operated 6 experimental uterine transplants in early 2012, including couples British mother and daughter, Evan Ottosson and her daughter.

Ms. Evan Ottosson and her daughter Sara, are expected to be successful cases
First on uterine transplant surgery.

Dr. Mats Brannstrom of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, who led the group of experts who are preparing for these experimental transplants, said they are considering 10 potential patients and will perform uterine transplants for 5 or 6 most appropriate cases. Surgery is planned as early as possible in spring 2012 in Sweden.

The most feasible case of these 6 transplants is the English mother and daughter pair, Eva Ottosson, 56, from the UK. She recently published in the newspaper about her intention to give her uterus to her 25-year-old daughter Sara, who lives in Stockholm, Sweden.

Sara suffers from a disease called Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser Syndrome , which means she has a uterine deficiency and some parts of the vagina at birth . If Sara successfully performs surgery, her pregnancy will be carried out by artificial insemination and then the fetus will grow in the new womb given from her mother.

Previously there was an unsuccessful uterine transplant surgery. The only case took place in 2000 in Saudi Arabia. A 26-year-old woman who lost her uterus due to hemorrhage received a uterus donation from a 46-year-old woman.

However, this transplant has not been successful. After 99 days, doctors had to remove this uterus. The donor gave the uterus because doctors had previously advised her to remove her uterus because of the risk of ovarian cysts. It was not until 2002 that news of this secret transplant was revealed from a scientific conference.

For more than 10 years of research on uterine transplantation, Dr. Brannstrom is the best person to understand the current implant.

Ms. Evan Ottosson.

Dr. Brannstrom's group has done a series of very successful experiments on many animals, typically in mice, sheep, and baboons. In 2002, the uterine implant mice were successfully " exhausted ", producing implanted baby uterine mice. A year later, the press continued to report that these pups grew healthy and could reproduce normally. Since then, this high-level ' doctor to give birth ' has successfully implanted the uterus on sheep and on baboons. Most recently, in an unpublished study, he said, it is possible to implant strange uterus, not relatives in mice.

The team intends that they will give the uterus to artificial insemination immediately after the surgery because this ' helps the uterine potency be highly accepted '. They claim, because pregnancy itself is an immunized privileged state, in which a foreign substance from the father's body is accepted by the mother's immune system.

Newscientist quoted scientists as explaining: They will implant not only the uterus, but need to implant all arteries and uterine veins to help provide and coordinate the organ. The recipient will then take immunosuppressive drugs at low doses to prevent the body from rejecting the new uterus .

For uterine surgery, surgery itself is the most difficult step. Compared to other relatively isolated organs such as the kidney, the uterus is located deep inside the body and is difficult to access. Therefore, interventions for uterine transplants proved to be technically difficult. ' However, we have overcome this challenge for experimental animals ,' said the Swedish doctor.

The highest risk of surgery is that the recipient's body does not accept it . And as with all other babies, including the risk of hypertension, obesity and many related problems.

The question is if a woman wants to become pregnant while completely without a completely broken uterus or uterus, why not use her own egg insemination and implant the fetus into one the womb of another substitute mother (surrogate mother).

According to Mr. Brannstrom, ' this is a very reasonable alternative ', but it is illegal in many countries around the world. Moreover, for ' replacement mothers ' who are older, for example Sara's mother pregnant with her, will lead to a high risk of health.

However, the operation of removing the uterus from the body is also a dangerous thing towards the elderly donor.

In addition current technology does not allow scientists to develop artificial uterus. In 1992, Japanese researchers successfully adopted a fetus in an artificial 'gourd'. However, the fetus is removed from the mother's body after three-quarters of the pregnancy in the womb before continuing to feed in the ' vote '. This is the closest test to the current artificial fetus.

Besides Dr. Brannstrom's expert team, there are a few other groups around the world that are currently working on the same topic, one in Chelsear and Westminster in London and another in Downtown Hospital, New. York. However, all of these expert groups know each other and work together.