Abstract
Abstract The female reproductive tract (FRT) consists of major organs of the ovary, the female gonad, and downstream fallopian tube, uterus, and cervix. There are intimate relationships between cells in each reproductive organ as well as between each organ to sustain women’s menstrual cycle and fertility. So far, there are few effective in vitro or ex vivo models that both faithfully recapitulate the hallmarks of female reproduction and possess scalability. In this presentation, I will first introduce how we used an alginate hydrogel-based 3D encapsulated in vitro follicle growth (eIVFG) system to engineer a mini-ovary, which can recapitulate key ovarian functions as occurring in vivo, including gonadotropin-dependent folliculogenesis, oocyte maturation, ovarian steroidogenesis, ovulation, and luteinization. Next, I will introduce how we used the emerging microfluidic technology to engineer an FRT-on-a-chip. The FRT-on-a-chip allows organ-organ integration of hormonal signaling, which simulates women’s 28-day menstrual cycle and also the pregnancy-like endocrine loops. In summary, the engineered mini-ovary and FRT-on-a-chip are new powerful tools for studying female reproductive biology, disease, contraception, drug development, and toxicology.
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