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Cryopreservation of whole ovaries with vascular pedicles: vitrification or conventional freezing?

  • Fertility Preservation
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To compare the efficacy of vitrification and conventional freezing of whole ovaries.

Methods

Ovaries obtained from 5-year-old female bovines were cryopreserved by conventional freezing, rapid freezing and vitrification. The ovarian cortical strips were cryopreserved by conventional freezing. Follicular viability was assessed using the trypan blue test; the percentage of morphologically normal primordial follicles, hormones concentrations in the culture supernatants, and lactate dehyrogenase levels were measured.

Results

The efficacy of cryopreservation of whole ovaries by vitrification was higher than those by conventional freezing and rapid freezing. Conventional freezing of ovarian cortical strips was more effective than cryopreservation of whole ovaries by conventional freezing, rapid freezing, and vitrification.

Conclusions

Vitrification seems to be more suitable than conventional freezing for cryopreservation of whole ovaries. However, further studies are required to improve the efficacy of vitrifying whole ovaries.

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Acknowledgements

Appreciation is extended to Dr Bin Li, Ph.D., for assistance in statistics analysis and Dr Yu Wang Ph.D. from department of pathology for supporting this work.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Center for Reproductive Medicine, Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, 324 Jingwu Road, Jinan, China, 250021

    Jian-Min Zhang, Yan Sheng, Yong-Zhi Cao, Hong-Yan Wang & Zi-Jiang Chen

Authors
  1. Jian-Min Zhang
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  2. Yan Sheng
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  3. Yong-Zhi Cao
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  4. Hong-Yan Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zi-Jiang Chen.

Additional information

Supported by: 1. Postdoctoral Foundation for Innovation Project of Shandong Province, China (Grant No: 200903074). 2. Shandong Major Scientific Innovation Foundation (2006GG1102021).

Caspsule

Vitrification seems to be more suitable than conventional freezing for cryopreservation of whole ovaries.

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Zhang, JM., Sheng, Y., Cao, YZ. et al. Cryopreservation of whole ovaries with vascular pedicles: vitrification or conventional freezing?. J Assist Reprod Genet 28, 445–452 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-011-9539-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-011-9539-3

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