Effect of cryopreservation on mammalian ovarian cortex

Abstract

The increasingly effective, yet often dangerous cancer treatments, namely chemotherapy and radiotherapy, were found to have a lasting effect on women’s reproductive system, causing multiple complications regarding fertility. One of the ways to preserve fertility in female patients is using cryopreservation of ovarian tissue. This method has multiple advantages over the cryopreservation of embryo or oocyte; however, an appropriate protocol is yet to be developed. During this bachelor’s thesis, bovine ovaries were used as a model to try to identify the potential effect cryopreservation, by means of vitrification, may have on ovarian cortex, using histological and immunofluorescent methods.