Supplementation of transport and freezing media with anti-apoptotic drugs improves ovarian cortex survival

BACKGROUND: Ovarian tissue preservation is proposed to patients at risk of premature ovarian failure, but this procedure still needs to be optimized. To limit injury during ovarian tissue cryopreservation, anti-apoptotic drugs were added to the transport and freezing media of ovarian cortex tissue. METHODS: Sheep ovaries were transported, prepared and frozen in solutions containing vehicle or anti-apoptotic drugs (Z-VAD-FMK, a pan-caspase inhibitor, or sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), a bioactive lipid). After the tissue was thawed, the ovarian cortex was cultured for 2 or 6 days. Follicular quantification and morphological and proliferation analyses were performed on histological sections. RESULTS: After 2 days of culture, S1P improved the quality of primordial follicles; higher densities of morphologically normal and proliferative primordial follicles were found. Z-VAD-FMK displayed similar effects by preserving global primordial follicular density, but this effect was evident after 6 days of culture. This drug also improved cell proliferation after 2 and 6 days of culture. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that the addition of S1P or Z-VAD-FMK to the transport and freezing media prior to ovarian tissue cryopreservation improves primordial follicular quality and therefore improves global tissue survival. This should ultimately lead to improved fertility restoration after auto-transplantation. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13048-016-0216-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.