Abstract
Background and objectives: Cancer incidence is growing with younger patients diagnosed with this disease every year. Improved cancer diagnostics and treatment lead to better survival of cancer patients. However, after aggressive chemo- or radiotherapy, cancer survivors suffer from various degrees of subfertility or infertility. Several fertility preservation technologies have been developed for young cancer patients: cryopreservation of germ cells, embryos, or reproductive tissues. The best results have been shown by cryopreservation of sperm and embryos. Yet the success of using cryopreserved oocytes or reproductive tissues (ovarian and testicular) is still insufficient. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the vitality, viability, general quality, and safety of frozen–thawed human ovarian tissue for retransplantation using modern molecular tests. Materials and Methods: The new miRNA array test was used to evaluate miRNA expression in thawed ovarian tissue in combination with standard xenotransplantation and pathological examination of microslides. Results: Our results demonstrated that slow freezing is an efficient way (80%) to cryopreserve ovarian tissue with no structural damage afterwards. We have shown that xenotransplantation into immunodeficient mice, histology, and immunohistochemistry could be potentially replaced by more recent molecular methods. Conclusions: The latter method has shown that altered expression of miRNAs might be used as identifiers of normal/damaged tissue after further analysis. Newer, safer, and more specific approaches need to be developed in order to eliminate the risk of disease reoccurrence.
Highlights
Thanks to advancements in cancer diagnostics and treatment protocols, female survival rates have increased in recent decades, especially among young patients
gene ontology (GO):0038095 - Fc-epsilon receptor signaling pathway cellular components (CC) for predicted target genes. This pilot study has shown a couple of relevant findings: (1) the slow-freezing technique is a reliable method for ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC); (2) the first successful xenotransplantation of human frozen–thawed or fresh ovarian tissue in Lithuania; (3) histology, immunohistochemistry, and molecular analysis could be sufficient methods for quality control to verify the viability of frozen–thawed ovarian tissue
This pilot study has shown a couple of relevant findings: (1) the slow-freezing technique is a reliable method for OTC; (2) the first successful xenotransplantation of human frozen–thawed or fresh ovarian tissue in Lithuania; (3) histology, immunohistochemistry, and molecular analysis could be sufficient methods for quality control to verify the viability of frozen–thawed ovarian tissue and the risk level of metastatic disease
Summary
Thanks to advancements in cancer diagnostics and treatment protocols, female survival rates have increased in recent decades, especially among young patients. Due to aggressive treatment, usually systemic chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the probability of successful reproduction is reduced dramatically [1]. Patients within their reproductive years or adolescent patients should be referred to a specialist to discuss fertility preservation options [2,3]. There have been several strategies for fertility preservation to prolong the ability to conceive for female cancer survivors. These involve cryopreservation of oocytes, embryos, Medicina 2020, 56, 547; doi:10.3390/medicina56100547 www.mdpi.com/journal/medicina. Several fertility preservation technologies have been developed for young cancer patients: cryopreservation of germ cells, embryos, or reproductive tissues. Safer, and more specific approaches need to be developed in order to eliminate the risk of disease reoccurrence
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