Developing an artificial fallopian tube: successful in vitro trials in mice

This report describes the design and testing of an artificial fallopian tube for the treatment of tubal infertility. Within the device, mouse eggs incubated with sperm were fertilized and a microinfusion pump was used to transport the fertilized ova through the tube. Normal offspring resulted from transfer of the developing embryos into pseudopregnant recipients. These results provide encouraging evidence that an artificial fallopian tube warrants further investigation as a potential alternative to in vitro fertilization.