Researchers from I3A and IIS Aragón seek to improve the fertility of childhood cancer survivors

30% of girls with cancer later have problems becoming mothers. The TME Lab research group, with funding from Aspanoa through her chair with the University, wants to improve the ovarian tissue preservation technique

Around 30% of girls who overcome childhood cancer later have great difficulties becoming mothers. These fertility problems arise from the aggressive treatments they receive to cure themselves, especially chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Therefore, the Aragon Engineering Research Institute (I3A) has just started a project to improve the preservation of ovarian tissue in girls with cancer, within the Impulse Program with Aspanoa.

The research is led by scientists Clara Malo and Iñaki Ochoa, from the research group TME Lab of the I3A and the IIS Aragon, and is launched thanks to the Aspanoa financing, specifically, through the Chair that this association has with the University of Zaragoza for childhood cancer research.

The preservation of ovarian tissue is still carried out in few hospitals in Spain because it is a pioneering technique and of which there is still much to study. “If the girl has already started ovulating, it is enough to freeze her eggs. But if the minor has not yet begun the reproductive cycle, the only option is the preservation of the ovarian tissue,” the scientists explain.

Ovarian tissue currently removed from girls with cancer is frozen and then, when the time comes, transplant it. But in this process, 50% of the follicles or reproductive units are lost. Malo and Ochoa want to improve these poor figures through their project, which consists of studying current freezing processes - such as the percentage of whey used or the relevance of the biofreezer used today - and, at the same time, developing the prototype of a commercial instrument that allows automating the process. This last project will be co-developed together with the company Beonchip, a spin off of the TME Lab, and directed by Rosa Monge.

In fact, researchers believe that a significant part of the poor conservation may be due to current technique requires a lot of manipulation. "We are experts in microfluidics and we are going to use this knowledge to automate the process, so that any technician can carry out the preservation of ovarian tissue with the minimum possible manipulation, having total control over the environment, and resembling it as closely as possible to the characteristics of a uterus to promote its conservation,” they explain.

Researchers have already done the first trials with sheep, whose ovarian tissue is very similar to human tissue, and in this project they will do it with discarded tissue from adult patients in order to optimize the technique before doing the last tests with pediatric tissue.

This is the project they are starting now, but, in the longer term, they would like to test if it is possible to develop mature eggs in the laboratory itself by artificially growing the follicles from the ovarian tissue extracted from the girl. “This would allow the egg to be fertilized abroad with the father's future sperm, and the embryo would be directly transferred to the mother, without having to have a second intervention to transplant the ovarian tissue,” she points out.

Clara Malo e Iñaki Ochoa They point out that they are very excited that their project is being supported: “There are very few groups working on this idea, we are all in contact, and we are convinced that it has great potential. This help from Aspanoa will surely allow us to move forward and continue growing.”

Source: I3A

Laboratory image: Asier Alkorta

Press conference image: I3A – Aspanoa