Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the study was to investigate the maturation rate of immature oocytes collected from ovarian medulla tissue normally discarded during preparation of ovarian cortical tissue for fertility preservation. Further we evaluated survival of derived MII oocytes following vitrification and warming.
Methods
36 patients aged from 8 to 41 years who had one ovary excised for fertility preservation were included. Oocytes were collected from the medulla tissue and matured in vitro 44–48 h followed by vitrification. Number of oocytes collected, the rates of maturation and post-warming survival were assessed.
Results
On average, 11 immature oocytes were collected per patient. The overall maturation rate was 29 % irrespective of whether the ovary was transported 4–5 h on ice or obtained immediately after oophorectomy. The maturation rate in patients below 20 years of age (55 %) was significantly higher than that of patients aged 20–30 years (29 %) and above 30 years (26 %). The post-warming survival rate was 64 %. No significant relationship was observed between the number of collected oocytes and the age of patients.
Conclusions
Approximately three MII oocytes were obtained per patient following in vitro maturation (IVM) of immature oocytes collected from medulla tissue, of which two survived vitrification and warming. This approach represents an add-on method to potentially augment the fertility opportunity for cancer patients, especially in young women with cancer where transplantation of cortical tissue may pose a risk of relapse, but the IVM approach is currently too inefficient to be the only method used for fertility preservation.
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Capsule IVM of oocytes collected from surplus medualla tissue may be a valuable add-on-method for fertility preservation.
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ESM 1
Patient characteristics, IVM rate and survival of oocytes undergoing vitrification and warming. (DOC 74 kb)
ESM 2
Viability assessment of post-warming MII oocyte. (A) Survived MII and (B) dead MII from the patient (No.18) aged 22 years. (C) Negative control, MII from the patient (No.15) aged 27 years underwent 70 % alcohol treatment for 10 min and showed all cells are dead. Upper panel: bight field; lower panel: confocal field (×100 fold). (TIFF 1978 kb)
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Yin, H., Jiang, H., Kristensen, S.G. et al. Vitrification of in vitro matured oocytes collected from surplus ovarian medulla tissue resulting from fertility preservation of ovarian cortex tissue. J Assist Reprod Genet 33, 741–746 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-016-0691-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-016-0691-7