Zubizarreta Maria E, Xiao Shuo
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA.
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Environmental Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA.
Biodes Manuf. 2020 Sep;3(3):237-251. doi: 10.1007/s42242-020-00082-8. Epub 2020 Jun 16.
The female reproductive system consists of the ovaries, the female gonads, and the reproductive track organs of the fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix, and vagina. It functions to provide hormonal support and anatomical structure for the production of new offspring. A number of endogenous and exogenous factors can impact female reproductive health and fertility, including genetic vulnerability, medications, environmental exposures, age, nutrition, and diseases, etc. To date, due to the ethical concerns of using human subjects in biomedical research, the majority of studies use animal models and 2D cell/tissue culture models to study female reproduction. However, the complexity and species difference of the female reproductive system in humans makes it difficult to compare to those of animals. Moreover, the monolayered cells cultured on flat plastics or glass lose their 3D architecture as well as the physical and/or biochemical contacts with other cells . Further, all reproductive organs do not work alone but interconnect with each other and also with non-reproductive organs to support female reproductive, endocrine, and systemic health. These facts suggest that there is an urgent and unmet need to develop representative, effective, and efficient models for studying human female reproduction. The prodigious advancements of bioengineering (e.g. biomaterials, 3D printing, and organ-on-a-chip) allow us to study female reproduction in an entirely new way. Here, we review recent advances that use bioengineering methods to study female reproduction, including the bioengineering models of the ovary, fallopian tube, uterus, embryo implantation, placenta, and reproductive disease.
女性生殖系统由卵巢（女性性腺）以及输卵管、子宫、宫颈和阴道等生殖管道器官组成。其功能是为新后代的产生提供激素支持和解剖结构。许多内源性和外源性因素会影响女性生殖健康和生育能力，包括遗传易感性、药物、环境暴露、年龄、营养和疾病等。迄今为止，由于在生物医学研究中使用人类受试者存在伦理问题，大多数研究使用动物模型和二维细胞/组织培养模型来研究女性生殖。然而，人类女性生殖系统的复杂性和物种差异使得难以与动物的进行比较。此外，在平板塑料或玻璃上培养的单层细胞失去了其三维结构以及与其他细胞的物理和/或生化接触。此外，所有生殖器官并非单独发挥作用，而是相互连接，并且还与非生殖器官相互作用以支持女性生殖、内分泌和全身健康。这些事实表明，迫切需要开发具有代表性、有效且高效的模型来研究人类女性生殖。生物工程（如生物材料、3D打印和芯片器官）的巨大进步使我们能够以全新的方式研究女性生殖。在此，我们综述了利用生物工程方法研究女性生殖的最新进展，包括卵巢、输卵管、子宫、胚胎植入、胎盘和生殖疾病的生物工程模型。
