Treatment of uterine factor infertility - uterus transplantations and bioengineered uterus

Uterine factory infertility (UFI), affecting around 2000 Swedish women, was untreatable until we introduced uterus transplantation (UTx) in 2014.

The cause of UFI is either lack of the uterus or non-functionality of a uterus.The main purpose of the project is to further develop methods to treat UFI, by UTx or by a bioengineered uterus.Specific aims of UTx research are:- to develop surgical techniques for robotic-live- and deceased-donor UTx- to study UTx-related long-term medical, psychological and quality-of-life effects- to improve rejection diagnosis- to analyse health economy of UTx- to establish a world-wide UTx quality registry- to study preoperative imaging for better donor selection- to study uterine microbiome, receptivity, contractility and calcineurin nephrotoxity The other main line of research deals with the development of a bioengineered uterus, which may become an alternative to UTx, with eliminated donor surgery risk, no shortage of uteri, and without the need of side-effect associated immunosuppression.Specific aims of bioengineered uterus research are:- to optimize decellularization protocols- to achieve recellularization of the uterus scaffold using stem cells- to study in vivo properties (survival, functionality) of a bioengineered uterus- to develop 3D printing for bioengineered uterus The project will introduce novel infertility treatments to a large group of women, who until recently was regarded as irreversibly infertile.