title: A grafted ovarian fragment rescues host fertility after chemotherapy.
abstract: Can host fertility be rescued by grafting of a fragment of a healthy ovary soon after chemotherapy?
  
  
  
  We found that grafting a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-positive fragment from a healthy isogenic ovary to the left ovary of a chemo-treated host rescued function and fertility of the grafted host ovary, and resulted in the production of host-derived offspring as late as the sixth litter after chemotherapy (CTx) treatment, whereas none of the ungrafted controls produced a second litter.
  
  
  
  In women and girls undergoing chemotherapy, infertility and premature ovarian failure are frequent outcomes. There are accumulating reports of improved endocrine function after autotransplantation of an ovarian fragment, raising the possibility that the transplant is beneficial to the endogenous ovary.
  
  
  
  We first established a CTx treatment regimen that resulted in the permanent loss of fertility in 100% of female mice of the FVB inbred strain. We grafted an isogenic ovary fragment from a healthy female homozygous for a GFP transgene to the left ovary of 100 CTx-treated hosts, and compared fertility to 39 ungrafted controls in 6 months of continuous matings, using GFP to distinguish offspring derived from the graft, and those derived from the host.
  
  
  
  Immunofluoresece and western blot analysis of 39 treated ovaries during and 15 days after CTx treatment revealed elevated apoptosis, rapid loss of granulosa cells and an increased recruitment of growing follicles. Using immunofluorescence and confocal imaging, we tracked the outcome of the grafted tissue over 4 months and its effect on the adjacent and contralateral ovary of the host.
  
  
  
  Fifty-three percent of grafted females produced a second litter whereas none of the ungrafted females produced a second litter. The likelihood that this could occur by chance is very low (P < 0.0001).
  
  
  
  These results are shown only in mice, and whether or how they might apply to chemotherapy patients subjected to different CTx regimens is not yet clear.
  
  
  
  Our experiments prove that rescue of a chemo-treated ovary is possible, and establish a system to investigate the mechanism of rescue and to identify the factors responsible with the long-term goal of developing therapies for preservation of ovarian endocrine function and fertility in women undergoing chemotherapy.
  
  
  
  No large datasets were produced.
  
  
  
  Duke University Medical Center Chancellor's Discovery Grant to BC; ESJ was supported by an NRSA 5F31CA165545; SK was supported by NIH RO1 GM08033; RWT was supported by the Duke University School of Medicine Ovarian Cancer Research Fellowship; XBM was supported by CONICYT. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
authors.forename: Iordan Stefanov
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Batchvarov
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.|School of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
authors.forename: Rachel Williamson
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.|Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Departamento Biomédico Universidad de Antofagasta, Antofagasta, Chile.
authors.forename: Ximena
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bustamante-Marín
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Czerwinski
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
authors.forename: Erika Segear
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kornbluth
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA blanche.capel@duke.edu.
authors.forename: Blanche
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Capel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002066:Busulfan / Q000009:adverse effects; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D059247:Fertility Preservation / Q000379:methods; D006107:Granulosa Cells / Q000187:drug effects; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009865:Oocytes / Q000187:drug effects; D010053:Ovary / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology / Q000601:surgery / Q000637:transplantation*; D016649:Primary Ovarian Insufficiency / Q000601:surgery
chemical_list: D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D003520:Cyclophosphamide; D002066:Busulfan
keywords: chemotherapy; fertility; granulosa cells; oocytes; ovary; transplantation