Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation for Treatment of Premature Ovarian Insufficiency

Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) has no curative treatment until now. It was noticed that some cases of POI to recover spontaneously. Furthermore, the concept of fixed prenatal pool of oogonia has been challenged and postnatal neo-oogenesis is currently proved.

Very small embryonic-like stem cells (VSELs) are found in the ovary. VSELs are stem cells that have noticed to survive chemotherapy induced gonadal insufficiency. Data from animal studies showed that stimulation of these stem cells result in regeneration of the affected ovary. Stimulation was achieved by injection of mesenchymal stem cells that is supposed to secrete trophic factors.

Numerous studies in mice have proved the efficacy of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in resuming the ovarian function after chemotherapy-induced ovarian insufficiency. These studies have been followed by researches on human being. Human studies included the use of stem cells from different sites including BM, adipose tissue, and umbilical cord.

Allogeneic BMT raised the moral conflict about the origin of the newly developed oocytes. Although studies proved that these newly developed oocytes to be genetically traced to the recipient; some other studies showed that the newly developed oocytes originate from the donor BM. Several small studies examined the use of autologous BMT both in animal and in human. The results of these studies were promising. Use of autologous BMT also avoids the need for chemotherapy for conditioning and other related complications associated with allogeneic BMT. Human studies mostly used the ovarian injection of the BM. Intravenous injection is simpler and less invasive than ovarian injection as the later involves the use of laparoscopy. However, intravenous injection has not tested until now.