Ovarian Transplantations in the House Mouse

Abstract

There have been many attempts to obtain offspring from homo-plastic transplants of ovaries in vertebrates. Of these attempts, the most important are those of Magnus on rabbits, Guthrie on hens, and Castle and Phillips on guinea pigs and rabbits. The results of Magnus and Guthrie are uncertain, however, due to the possibility of the regeneration, of host ovarian tissue. Castle and Phillips grafted ovaries into 141 guinea pigs which differed from the donors in a single genetic character, and, of these, 3 produced young having the genetic characters of the donor animals. The present work deals with the results obtained from ovarian transplantations in the house mouse. Three groups of experiments were carried out on mice 6-8 weeks old. These are: Group I. A single ovary was transplanted from an animal of one inbred line into an animal of a different inbred line. Group II. A single ovary was transplanted from an animal of an inbred line into an animal differing in a single genetic character but belonging to the same inbred strain as the donor animal. Group III. As in Group II but in which the remaining host ovary was completely removed. The transplantations were carried out as follows: The ovary of the host animal was exposed by a dorso-lateral incision in the abdominal body wall. A small incision was made in the ovarian capsule as far distant from the Fallopian tube as possible, and the ovary removed. The donor ovary was then pushed through the slit into the host ovarian capsule. No sutures were needed except for closing the incision in the abdominal wall.