Primordial follicle survival of goat ovarian tissue after vitrification and transplantation on chorioallanthoic membrane

Background. Ovarian tissue vitrification is an alternative fertility preservation procedure for young female patients prior to gonadotoxic treatment. Primordial follicle loss might be a potential issue for vitrification and transplantation procedures. This study aimed to evaluate primordial follicle density and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) fragmentation in each stage of the preservation procedure of goat ovarian tissue. Follicle density and DNA fragmentation were examined microscopically after staining with hematoxylin eosin and TUNEL assay, respectively. Both parameters were compared between fresh, fresh-transplanted, vitrification, and vitrification-transplanted groups. Results. A significant decrease was observed in the primordial follicle proportion after vitrification and transplantation compared to the primordial follicle proportion in the fresh group (88.09% vs 52.42%, p < 0.05, 95% CI 11.54, 66.94). There was no significant difference in DNA fragmentations of primordial follicles between each group (p > 0.05). Conclusions. The vitrification and transplantation process of goat ovarian strips could cause the primordial follicles loss and DNA damage of the follicles. However, primordial follicles loss and DNA damage were not significantly different in each procedure.