In vitro ovarian tissue and organ culture: a review

Abstract

Many investigations have utilized techniques for culturing ovarian tissue or isolated follicles in vitro. Whole ovaries from fetal or neonatal rodents have been incubated in organ culture systems. This has been utilized to understand the sequence of follicle formation and its hormonal requirements, activation of quiescent follicles, follicular growth and development, and acquisition of steroidogenic capabilities. Adaptations of this technique include incubation of ovaries in a chamber continuously perfused with medium or perfusion of medium through the intact vasculature. Late follicular development, ovulation, and steroidogenesis can also be examined in these systems. Another approach has been to culture individual follicles isolated by enzymatic or mechanical dissociation. The majority of this research has focused on improving follicular development in vitro. This review will discuss these various culture techniques and some of the results that have been acquired. Recent results from toxicological studies utilizing whole ovarian cultures performed will also be described. Future applications for ovarian and follicular cultures may include in vitro follicular development for eventual production of offspring from frozen ovarian tissue, mechanistic studies related to the impact of endocrine disruptors and ovotoxicants on ovarian function, and further investigations into follicle activation and development.

Dual protective role for Glutathione S-transferase class pi against VCD-induced ovotoxicity in the rat ovary☆

“…VCD (30 μM) exposure in PND4 rat ovaries results in loss of primordial and small primary follicles after 6d in culture (Keating et al ., 2009). Thus, an in vitro rat whole ovarian culture system (Devine et al ., 2002a,b; 2004) was used in the present study to investigate ovarian expression of GSTp mRNA and protein in response to VCD in rats. An increase in GSTp mRNA was first detected after d4 of VCD exposure and was sustained on d6 and d8.…”

“…An in vitro culture system has been developed using ovaries from PND4 rats (enriched in small pre-antral follicles) to examine in vitro effects of ovotoxicants without a metabolic influence from the liver (Devine et al ., 2002b; 2004). Whether the GST and JNK pathways interact in the ovary as in other tissues is unknown.…”

Assessing recrudescence of photoregressed Siberian hamster ovaries using in vitro whole ovary culture

“…Fetal and neonatal ovaries (Baker & Neal, , Challoner, , Eppig & O'Brien, , Salehnia, Pajokh, & Ghorbanmehr, ) and isolated follicles (Cain, Chatterjee, & Collins, , Hayashi et al, ) have been cultured for 2–14 days showing the necessity of gonadotropins (GT) for follicular growth. In vitro exposure to GT promotes both folliculogenesis and steroidogenesis in addition to growth factor release in cultured ovaries (reviewed in Devine, Rajapaksa, & Hoyer, ). Neonatal ovarian culture has also been used to investigate both primordial follicle recruitment and assembly (Durlinger et al, ; Y. Chen, Jefferson, Newbold, Padilla‐Banks, & Pepling, ), and the effect of various growth factors and hormones on primordial and primary follicle development (Kezele, Nilsson, & Skinner, , N. Chen et al, , Nilsson & Skinner, , , Nilsson, Parrott, & Skinner, ).…”

Mechanisms of Ovarian Atresia Induced by Xenobiotic Exposures

“…VCD at a concentration of 30 µM induces significant loss of primordial and small primary follicles following 6 days of exposure in cultured PND 4 rat ovaries (Figure 3; Devine et al, 2002;Keating et al, 2009). A key gene identified to be altered by VCD in a microarray study was the PI3K pathway member, c-Kit.…”