Researchers at the Wyss Institute, affiliated with the renowned American university Harvard, have created what they call a “vagina on a chip”.
This will help them research
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” data-term=”microbiome”>microbiome into the vagina, says a press release from the institute.
In recent years, research into bacterial cultures and microbiomes in various parts of the body has accelerated.
Research has highlighted the fact that a bacterial imbalance can lead, for example, to irritable bowel, but bacterial cultures from the vagina have been forgotten, believe the Wyss Institute researchers.
Researcher: I’ve moved up a notch
The goal of “organs on a chip” is to create mini-organ systems that represent a human’s physiology, according to Hanne Scholz, a senior research scientist at Oslo University Hospital and the University of Oslo.
– They created a vagina that represents what it would look like in a human, so they took it a step further, and you can tell you trust this model, she tells NRK.
The chip contains human cells that recreate the environment in the vaginal canal.
By placing bacteria on the vaginal chip, researchers can study how the bacteria affect vaginal health, they write Live science.
A lot of research is being done in this area, for example on cancer, liver and pancreas tumors on a chip, says Scholz.
– There’s a whole range of organ systems being developed on a chip. They can help us understand diseases and help develop and study the effects of drugs.
Development of new treatments
With the chip it will be easier to find the cure for vaginal catarrh. The condition is difficult to investigate because the bacterial flora in the vagina in humans is completely different from that of animals.
The same researchers define the chip as a breakthrough for women’s health.
There is growing agreement that women’s health is important to the health of all people, but few tools have been created to research women’s physiology, says senior researcher Don Ingber in the news release, and adds :
– We hope this preclinical model will guide the development of new treatments for vaginal catarrh as well as new insights into women’s reproductive health.
According to Cheers Norway Vaginal catarrh during pregnancy can increase the risk of miscarriage, premature birth, low birth weight of the baby and infection in the uterine cavity during and after pregnancy.
The condition is caused by an imbalance in the bacterial flora of the vagina and is essentially harmless unless you are pregnant.
Lung chip twelve years ago
Researchers at the Wyss Institute have already invented “organs on a chip” to facilitate medical research by avoiding animal testing.
“Lung on a chip” was created in 2010and then followed bone marrow, kidneys and intestines.
The chips are being used to test treatments for coronavirus, flu, malnutrition and
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Source: NHI
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Among other things, they were used by the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, as well as by US authorities who tested corona vaccines on them, according to the institute.
