Reproduction Abstracts

Introduction: Recent progress in cancer therapy has significantly decreased mortality rates. However, these therapies whilst curative can cause significantly reduced fertility or sterility. Current fertility preservation methods are limited to women who either have a partner or who will use donor sperm and without a hormone sensitive tumor. Ovarian tissue transplantation could offer an alternative for these patients. Unlike other studies, we assessed the impact of cryopreservation on follicular development in post-pubescent ovarian tissue by investigating the effects of cryopreservation on the expression of 3 proteins involved in follicular growth.

Methods: Ovarian biopsies from women undergoing cesarean section were used for fresh and cryopreserved xenografting into nude mice and left for 145 days. The mice were stimulated with gonadatropins and Ki67, AMH and FSH receptor immunostaining was carried out and quantified.

Results: Fresh biopsies produced a greater number of follicles but those from cryopreserved biopsies reached more advanced developmental stages. Expression of MIB-1 and FSH receptor staining was higher in follicles of the cryopreserved samples than in the fresh, but AMH staining was 40% greater in fresh biopsies. 37.5% of fresh biopsies developed a corpus luteum (CL) and 12.5% presented with calcification compared with 10 and 50% respectively in cryopreserved biopsies.

Conclusion: This is the first study to use FSH receptor staining to validate follicular staging and use quantitative IHC analysis. The results suggest accelerated development through to ovulation in fresh biopsies and that cryopreservation interferes with follicular growth. We postulate that ischemia is the cause of follicular developmental delay in cryopreserved tissue.