BACKGROUND Female cancer patients are offered 'banking' of gametes before starting fertility-threatening cancer therapy. Transplants of fresh and frozen ovarian tissue between healthy fertile and infertile women have demonstrated the utility of the tissue banked for restoration of endocrine and fertility function. Additional methods, like follicle culture and isolated follicle transplantation, ...

The primary therapeutic goal for the oncology patient is survival. Recent advances in diagnoses and treatment of neoplasia have resulted in an ever-increasing number of patients being cured and resuming a normal life. However, recognized side effects of treatments used to eradicate malignancies are temporary or permanent sterility. The cryopreservation of ovarian tissue harvested before cancer ...

Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) is expressed in both animal and human ovarian tissue, however, the role of vitamin D in human ovarian steroidogenesis is unknown. Cultured human ovarian cells were incubated in tissue culture medium supplemented with appropriate substrates, with or without 50 pM-150 pM or 50 nM-150 nM of 1,25-(OH)2D3, and in the presence or absence of insulin. Progesterone, testosterone...

Background: Ovarian tissue cryopreservation is an alternative strategy to preserve the fertility of women predicted to undergo premature ovarian failure. This study was designed to evaluate the expression of folliculogenesis-related genes, including factor in the germline alpha (FIGLA), growth differentiation factor-9 (GDF-9), follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR), and KIT LIGAND after v...

objective: this study aimed to evaluate the incidence of apoptosis in vitrified and non-vitrified human ovarian tissue by the use of morphological analysis and apoptosis assay techniques. methods: we obtained human ovarian tissue biopsies from 30 women who underwent elective caesarean sections. tissues were transported to the laboratory in pre-warmed, equilibrated leibovitz l-15 medium within 2...

The ability of culture dishes coated with an extracellular matrix (ECM) to act as a suitable substrate for human ovarian carcinoma cells in vitro has been examined. The plating efficiency on ECM was 30 to 80% (dispersed tumor cells from solid tumor tissue and effusions) with active proliferation of tumor cells being observed. Within a few min, ovarian carcinoma cells seeded on an ECM were noted...

BACKGROUND Cryopreservation of ovarian tissue has been widely accepted as an option for fertility preservation among cancer patients. Some patients are exposed to chemotherapy prior to ovarian tissue cryopreservation. Consequently, assessment of the developmental capacity of human ovarian tissue after chemotherapy is of primary importance. MATERIALS In order to study the impact of previous ch...

The receptor tyrosine c-Kit and its cognate ligand, c-Kit ligand (KL, stem cell factor, SCF), are involved in ovarian follicular development in several animal species. We studied the expression of KL and c-Kit using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry in donated human ovarian cortical tissue. The KL transcripts were expressed in granulosa cells of primary follicles, whereas the expre...