Chinese scientists develop new method to preserve female fertility

A group of Chinese scientists has developed a new method to preserve mouse follicles at a very low temperature, increasing their viability by more than 30 percent after recovering, compared with conventional methods.

The results shed light on a promising approach for fertility preservation in women, according to the study published in the journal Nature Communications.

For prepubescent girls and women in urgent need of cancer treatment, follicle cryopreservation is almost the sole option to preserve their fertility. However, the protective agents used in the current method of follicle cryopreservation often lead to a poor effect due to their high concentration and high toxicity, said the paper.

Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), in collaboration with counterparts from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, developed a method of vitrification cryopreservation of mouse follicles encapsulated in hydrogel by "nanowarming," a novel cryopreservation technology.

The researchers reduced the demand for the highly toxic protective agents through the method and lowered its concentration to a quarter of the conventional way, said the paper, revealing that the viability of mouse follicles was increased by more than 30 percent.

In further research, oocytes obtained from these follicles were in vitro fertilized and developed into healthy mouse pups after embryo transfer, said Zhao Gang, the research leader at the USTC.

The patent for this technology has been filed and is expected to be applied clinically in related hospitals in Anhui Province in the next year, Zhao added.