Want children, but it seems like no matter how hard you try, you and your spouse just couldn’t seem to help nature bring forth your heart’s desire? Rejoice, as a breakthrough may be on the horizon: Researchers at the Women's Health Research Institute at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have engineered another use for 3D Printing—a possible solution to infertility.
The researchers installed a 3D-printed ovary on a mouse, and the mouse was able to mate naturally and give birth to two pups of her own. An interesting way for technology to help nature, right?
While this medical breakthrough only seems to address the lack of a functioning ovary in a mouse, who knows what else 3D printing could replace? Damaged fallopian tubes? Endometrial lining that just can’t hold a baby firmly? An STD-ravaged cervix? Or how about testes that don’t produce the right amount of sperm to sustain fertilization? The possibilities are endless.
The application for 3D printing is chiefly in creating prosthetic parts for amputees and other patients who may require assistance with limbs and other body parts. The technology has also been used in creating anatomically-accurate models for teaching purposes, as well as medical equipment that may have been more expensive to create and transport otherwise. Although medical professionals can already create tissues complete with blood vessels, heart valves, and even sensors for organs that may have lost feeling through wonders of 3D printing, solutions for infertility had been unheard-of, at least, until today.
So if IVF or surrogate pregnancy won’t work for you and your spouse, decades in the very near future, you may be able to hold a bundle of pure joy and your merged DNA—thanks to the wonders of 3D Printing.
For more applications on 3D Printing, VISIT THIS LINK.
This news was scooped from CNN. A video explaining the medical breakthrough is also available on the linked article.
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Photo Credits: CNN
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