Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Infertility: There could be a 3D printing solution

May 16, 2017 By Chris Newmarker

Northwestern infertility 3D printed ovary scaffold

Northwestern University researchers 3D printed gelatin to create a scaffold for a bioprosthetic mouse ovary [Image courtesy of Northwestern University]

New Northwestern University research offers a potential 3D printing solution for women’s infertility – providing hope for cancer survivors who want to start families.

The Northwestern researchers successfully 3D printed a bioprosthetic mouse ovary that ovulated when implanted inside a live mouse. Mice with the bioprosthetic ovaries were able to give birth to live pups, and even produce milk for them thanks to hormones produced by the 3D printed ovaries.

“This research shows these bioprosthetic ovaries have long-term, durable function,” said Teresa K. Woodruff, a reproductive scientist and director of the Women’s Health Research Institute at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

“Using bioengineering, instead of transplanting from a cadaver, to create organ structures that function and restore the health of that tissue for that person, is the holy grail of bioengineering for regenerative medicine,” Woodruff said in a news release.

Northwestern University infertility 3D printing ovaries

An immature egg cells wedges into the 3D printed scaffold. [Image courtesy of Northwestern University]

The research team at the Northwestern’s Feinberg the and McCormick School of Engineering created the ovaries by 3D printing scaffolds made of gelatin that could then house immature eggs.

“Most hydrogels are very weak, since they’re made up of mostly water, and will often collapse on themselves. But we found a gelatin temperature that allows it to be self-supporting, not collapse, and lead to building multiple layers. No one else has been able to print gelatin with such well-defined and self-supported geometry,” said Ramille Shah, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at McCormick and of surgery at Feinberg.

3D printing allowed the researchers to imitate the complex soft tissue structures of actual ovaries. The gelatin “skeleton” or “scaffolding” provided an optimal geometry for follicles, or immature eggs, to wedge within the scaffold. The open structure enabled the egg cells to mature and ovulate, and for blood vessels to form within the implant – creating a mechanism for hormones to circulate within the mouse.

Northwestern University 3D printing infertility mice ovary

A research mouse with a green pup produced from an egg from the bioprosthetic ovary. Researchers used eggs that produced green pups, in order to tell them apart from the control group. [Image courtesy of Northwestern University]

The hope is that this same type of technology will one day help women who have undergone cancer treatment as adults and now face infertility problems. Women who survive cancer treatment as children not only risk infertility but also have hormone-based development issues; hormones from bioprosthetic ovaries could help them through puberty.

“What happens with some of our cancer patients is that their ovaries don’t function at a high enough level and they need to use hormone replacement therapies in order to trigger puberty,” said Monica Laronda, co-lead author of the research and a former post-doctoral fellow in the Woodruff lab.

“The purpose of this scaffold is to recapitulate how an ovary would function. We’re thinking big picture, meaning every stage of the girl’s life, so puberty through adulthood to a natural menopause,” Laronda said.

[Want to stay more on top of MDO content? Subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter.]

You may also like:

  • CollPlant RhCollagen
    New CollPlant division focuses on 3D bioprinting
  • hydrogels medtech innovation
    6 ways hydrogels are enabling medtech innovation
  • regrow bone skull hydrogels
    This new hydrogel can regrow bone in skulls

About The Author

Chris Newmarker

Chris Newmarker is the executive editor of WTWH Media life science's news websites and publications including MassDevice, Medical Design & Outsourcing and more. A professional journalist of 18 years, he is a veteran of UBM (now Informa) and The Associated Press whose career has taken him from Ohio to Virginia, New Jersey and, most recently, Minnesota. He’s covered a wide variety of subjects, but his focus over the past decade has been business and technology. He holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from Ohio State University. Connect with him on LinkedIn or email at cnewmarker@wtwhmedia.com.

Comments

  1. http://www.robuxhackgenerator.com/ says

    June 3, 2017 at 8:12 am

    Do you mind if I quote a few of your articles as long as I provide credit and sources
    back to your blog? My blog is in the exact same area of interest as yours and my
    users would really benefit from some of the information you
    provide here. Please let me know if this alright with you.
    Thanks a lot!

    • Chris Newmarker says

      June 5, 2017 at 6:22 pm

      Feel free to post a bit and link back to the original article. Thanks!

Related Articles Read More >

A photo of the miniature Auxilium Biotechnologies implants made on the International Space Station.
Implants 3D-printed in space could enable nerve regeneration
Researchers develop faster, cheaper microfluidic device fabrication method
A photo of 3D-printed glacoma stents with a penny for scale.
Three predictions for high precision 3D printing and healthcare innovation
Axial3D GE HealthCare MR Imaging collaboration
GE HealthCare partners with Axial3D for patient-specific 3D MRI models
“mdo
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest medical device business news, application and technology trends.

DeviceTalks Weekly

See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe