The Next Anti-Aging Treatment?

The team also looked at the impact on the animals’ genitals and urinary system, which are frequently affected by a loss of ovarian function. Uterine health in the animals administered with the new treatment was comparable to the control animals.

There are hopes that this technique could provide a safe alternative to today’s drugs, which will be all the more important as the population of older women continues to grow. However, there are several obstacles that need to be overcome before human trials begin.

“First, we need to confirm this proof-of-concept with a follow up study,” wrote Emmanuel C. Opara, senior author on the study and professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, in an email to Futurism. “In which the cells to engineer the constructs are obtained from a different strain of rats as the ones that receive them in order to determine if the cell-based approach may be applicable in the scenario of using cells donated by unrelated female donors in patients requiring the treatment.”

Assuming the results of that study are promising, the approach would be tested in a large animal model such as a monkey, ahead of a clinical trial. “The major obstacle is funding,” explained Opara.