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It sounds like the plot of an improbable B-movie. But sometimes the truth is stranger than science fiction. Four women in the US have successfully received implanted vaginas that were grown in a lab from their own cells.

The women, who were all born with a rare condition which means the vagina does not develop properly, underwent the pioneering treatment at Wake Forest School of Medicine, North Carolina. The engineered vaginas, the first to be grown from the patients’ own living tissue and successfully implanted, have made it possible for the women to have sex for the first time.

All four women were born with a severe form of Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome (MRKH), a condition where the vagina and uterus do not develop properly or are completely absent. Before the operation, the women had a vulva, but no internal vaginal passage; they couldn’t menstruate or have penetrative sex.

Scientists removed tissue from the vulva of each woman, and grew the cells in the lab on a “scaffold”, a stretchy base made of biodegradable collagen:

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The growing tissue was then put into an incubator:

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Then, the collagen scaffold was hand-stitched into the shape of a vagina:

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In the operation, a cavity was created in the women’s abdomen, into which the engineered vaginal scaffold was then implanted. Following the surgery, the inserted tissue successfully matured into the women’s existing tissue over a number of months.

Conventional vaginal construction methods have used skin grafts or tissue from the abdominal tract, but these can have unpleasant side effects. Dr. Atala, Director of the Wake Forest Institute, told the BBC: “Really for the first time we’ve created a whole organ that was never there to start with, it was a challenge.”

Dr. Atala revealed this week that his team performed the first implants eight years ago. Enough time has passed that there seem to be no long-term side-effects, so the results have now been published for the first time.

MRKH is thought to affect around 1 in 5,000 women, and can be challenging psychologically as well as physically. Dr. Atala said the difference the operation had made to the women’s lives “was very rewarding to see”. After the implant, the women were able to have penetrative sex, and in theory, it’s even possible that some of them will be able to have children.

That’s the wonderful thing about the future – it’s not as far away as we think.

Sources: engadget, BBC, New Scientist