Fresh pieces of monkey ovary remain fully functional even when moved to a new site.
Abstract
Radiation and high-dose chemotherapy may render women with cancer prematurely sterile, a side-effect that would be avoided if ovarian tissue that had been removed before treatment could be made to function afterwards. Live offspring have been produced from transplanted ovarian tissue in mice1 and sheep2 but not in monkeys3 or humans4,5, although sex steroid hormones are still secreted. Here we describe the successful transplantation of fresh ovarian tissue to a different site in a monkey, which has led to the birth of a healthy female after oocyte production, fertilization and transfer to a surrogate mother. The ectopically grafted tissue functions without surgical connection to major blood vessels and sets the stage for the transplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue in humans.
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Supplementary Figure
a) Ovarian cortical tissue prepared for transplantation; b) Transplantation to 3 mm subcutaneous pockets in the arm and abdomen. Ovarian tissue was placed with the cortex against the underlying muscle; c) Development of a follicle from fresh ovarian tissue transplanted to the forearm. The inset shows the ultrasonographic appearance of the follicle. Oestradiol increased from 72 pg/ml to 575 pg/ml in venous blood from the transplanted tissue. Progesterone also increased from 0.24 ng/ml to 1.82 ng/ml. (JPG 34 kb)
Supplementary Table
Follicular development, oocyte procurement, and fertilization by transplantation site. (DOC 43 kb)
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Lee, D., Yeoman, R., Battaglia, D. et al. Live birth after ovarian tissue transplant. Nature 428, 137–138 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/428137a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/428137a
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