Struggling With Fibroids, UMD Researcher Seeks to Engineer a Treatment

In 2023 Erika Moore started experiencing menstrual blood clots and painful bloating. Before long, she was ducking out of conferences after bleeding through menstrual products and thinking twice before booking professional and social gatherings during her monthly cycle. 

Doctors said she likely had fibroids, which are benign tumors in and around the uterus. “I was like, ‘OK, where’s the pill?’ and they were like, ‘There is no pill,’” recalled Moore. Absent surgery, there was nothing doctors could do.

Acquaintances relayed similar stories to Moore about having the growths, which afflict 70% of women and 80% of Black women. While many patients are asymptomatic, up to half experience problems like heavy bleeding, infertility, hemorrhaging and loss of bladder control. In extreme conditions, one fibroid can swell to the size of a soccer ball. Fibroids are the most common cause of hysterectomy, and lesser surgeries often fail to prevent regrowth, “like a loose Band-Aid on a large wound,” said Moore, a University of Maryland assistant professor of bioengineering. 

But unlike those acquaintances, Moore could pursue a solution. She and doctoral student Allison Moses ‘23 have engineered living fibroids in a lab, relying on donated cells, and have infused their models with chemicals to halt the tumors’ growth. Their study showing preliminary success was recently published in the ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering Journal.

The UMD technology marks the first attempt to build a 3D model of a fibroid, to include a sheath mimicking its natural surroundings, Moore said. “I realized the literature is absent, and I wanted to help women try to bridge this gap because the gap is so massive.”

Her work has turned the heads of national advocates in search of a cure. “Erika’s research is groundbreaking,” said Sateria Venable, founder and CEO of the Fibroid Foundation, a Rockville, Md.-based nonprofit serving women across the globe. “It fulfills a huge need in understanding the actual dynamics of what’s growing and the environment in which it grows.” 

Moore and Moses obtained patients’ uterine cells from a commercial vendor and induced them into two types: the fibroids themselves, and the myometrial tissue, which makes up the middle layer of the uterus. 

To replicate a uterine environment—the malleable encasement that fortifies cells and their nutrients—Moore reached for a synthetic polymer she’d designed for previous studies, shown to alter cellular signals. 

She and Moses engineered the fibroids to replicate their natural stiffness but kept the myometrial tissue soft, a contrast perhaps responsible for fibroid growth. Each of the models is about the size of a pencil eraser. Further testing confirmed they were realistic copies of the real things. 

“When we saw the data, we were like, ‘Oh my God, it actually worked,’” Moore recalled.

The researchers next sought a chemical inhibitor they hoped would halt the fibroid’s growth but leave the myometrial tissue undisturbed. They selected one—a molecule called SB431542—which has shown promise with 2D fibroid representations. Moore and Moses delivered it to each of the models by mixing it with their daily dose of nutrients.

Encouragingly, the molecule blocked the growth of the fibroid. But it also damaged the myometrial tissue. Moore and Moses are now experimenting with different inhibitors in hopes of discovering a safe therapeutic. Initial data suggests that a molecule found in green tea extract can strike the right balance. 

“Women’s health research is underfunded and understudied, but this can significantly improve the lives of many women, considering that the standard of care for fibroids is hysterectomy," said Moses. "In five to 10 years I’d love to say we’ll have cured it, but at the very least we’ll have ways to intervene.”

The researchers plan to conclude data collection in the spring. Their research is funded by a grant from the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State, a collaboration between the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and conducted in partnership with Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Md.

As she seeks to develop a noninvasive treatment, Moore continues to endure the symptoms brought by her own condition.

“I’d like to avoid surgery so I’m just living with the pain,” she said, noting that her case is hardly special. “Most women with fibroids are where I am.”