Novel Approaches Used for Decreasing Apoptosis Rate in Ovarian Tissue Cryopreservation and Transplantation

Abstract

Apoptosis is the main cause of atresia in ovarian follicles. In oxidative stress (OS) conditions, an imbalance between pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic genes can increase the apoptosis rate. In some diseases, such as cancers, patients lose fertility due to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. One way to maintain fertility in these patients is ovarian tissue cryopreservation and transplantation (OTC/T). Studies show that OTC/T also increases apoptosis due to hypoxia and ischemia but fortunately new findings show that applying new approaches could decrease apoptosis in these procedures considerably. This article reviewed follicular atresia, apoptosis during cryopreservation and transplantation, and factors affecting the reduction of apoptosis.

Keywords: Ovarian transplantation, Apoptosis, Ovarian cryopreservation, Antioxidant, Cell therapy