Korean J Fertil Steril.  2000 Jun;27(2):145-150.

Xenografting of the Human Vitrified Ovarian Tissues into the Immune Deficient Animal

• Yoon SJ
• Lee SH
• Shin CS
• Lee KA
• Cho YS
• Yoon TK
• Cha KY

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
The present study was conducted to evaluate the viability of germ cells form the adult and fetal ovarian tissues after vitrification followed by xenografting. METHOD: The human adult ovarian tissues were obtained from 33 years old patients, and the fetal ovarian tissues were obtained from 22 weeks and 25 weeks in gestation. ovarian tissues were cryopreserved by vitrification with 5.5 M ethylene glycol (EG 5.5) and 1.0 M sucrose as cryoprotectants. Adult and fetal ovarian tissues were pre-equilivrated with EG 5.5 at room temperature for 10 and 5 minutes, respectively and plunged into liquid nitrogen immediately. Frozen-thawed tissues were xenografted into NOD-SCID mice to evaluated the viability and capacity for further growth of the primordial follicles. Grafts were recovered from the recipients 4 weeks after transplantation and histological analysis was accomplished. RESULT AND CONCLUSION: Grafts recovered 4 weeks after transplantation contained less number of oocytes and primordial follicles compared to that of the fresh tissues. Survived follicles were mainly primordial and intermediary with larger diameter and more granulosa cells. It is confirmed that 1) the ovarian tissues were healthy and the germ cells were survived after vitrification, and 2) the survived fetal primordial follicles after vitrification resumed the growth in the xenofrafts.

MeSH Terms

Adult
Animals*
Ethylene Glycol
Female
Germ Cells
Granulosa Cells
Heterografts*
Humans*
Mice
Nitrogen
Oocytes
Pregnancy
Sucrose
Transplantation, Heterologous*
Transplants
Vitrification
Ethylene Glycol
Nitrogen
Sucrose