A research team at Keio University has succeeded in impregnating a monkey with a womb transplanted from another monkey, the team announced at a meeting of the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Sendai.
Aiming to set up a clinical study to transplant uteruses into women congenitally missing the organ, the team plans to apply for permission from the university's ethics committee by the end of this year.
In the research, the team first removed the womb from a monkey, then transplanted another monkey's womb into her in January last year. They then injected an in-vitro fertilized egg, and the monkey was confirmed as pregnant on May 3.
Uterus transplants have already been conducted outside of Japan for women who, because of disease or other reasons, do not have the organ. Eleven babies have been born following uterus transplants in Sweden and other countries, according to Iori Kisu, a team member and project assistant professor at Keio University.
The team originally planned to file an application last year to the university's ethics committee for permission to conduct a clinical study on human uterus transplants. But the application has been delayed for ethical issues, including consideration of the heavy burden on womb donors and concerns over the impact that immunosuppressant drugs -- which are needed after the transplants -- could have on the fetus.
The current research marks "a big step forward technologically," Kisu said. "From now, we'll see if [the monkey fetus] can healthily develop to establish the safety [of the transplant] first with animals."
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