Fibrin Scaffold Incorporating Platelet Lysate Enhance Follicle Survival and Angiogenesis in Cryopreserved Preantral Follicle Transplantation

Alireza Rajabzadeh; Fatemeh Jahanpeyma; Ali Talebi; Faezeh Moradi; Amir Ali Hamidieh; Hussein Eimani

doi:10.31661/gmj.v9i0.1558

Fibrin Scaffold Incorporating Platelet Lysate Enhance Follicle Survival and Angiogenesis in Cryopreserved Preantral Follicle Transplantation

Galen Med J. 2020 Jul 8:9:e1558. doi: 10.31661/gmj.v9i0.1558. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Alireza Rajabzadeh¹, Fatemeh Jahanpeyma², Ali Talebi³, Faezeh Moradi⁴, Amir Ali Hamidieh⁵, Hussein Eimani⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Science, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
² Department of Medical Biotechnology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
³ School of Medicine, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran.
⁴ Department of Tissue Engineering, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Department, Children's Medical center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁶ Department of Embryology, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Background: Transplantation of cryopreserved follicles can be regarded as a promising strategy for preserving fertility in cancer patients under chemotherapy and radiotherapy by reducing the risk of cancer recurrence. The present study aimed to evaluate whether fibrin hydrogel supplemented with platelet lysate (PL) could be applied to enhance follicular survival, growth, and angiogenesis in cryopreserved preantral follicle grafts.

Materials and methods: Preantral follicles were extracted from 15 four-week-old NMRI mice, cryopreserved by cryotop method, and encapsulated in fibrin-platelet lysate for subsequent heterotopic (subcutaneous) auto-transplantation into the neck. Transplants were assessed in three groups including fresh follicles in fibrin-15%PL, cryopreserved follicles in fibrin-15%PL, and cryopreserved follicles in fibrin-0% PL. Two weeks after transplantation, histological, and immunohistochemistry (CD31) analysis were applied to evaluate follicle morphology, survival rate, and vascular formation, respectively.

Results: Based on the results, fibrin-15% PL significantly increased neovascularization and survival rate (SR) both in cryopreserved (SR=66.96%) and fresh follicle (SR=90.8%) grafts, compared to PL-less fibrin cryopreserved transplants (SR=28.46%). The grafts supplemented with PL included a significantly higher percentage of preantral and antral follicles. Also, no significant difference was observed in the percentage of preantral follicles between cryopreserved and fresh grafts of fibrin-15% PL. However, a significantly lower (P=0.03) percentage of follicles (23.37%) increased to the antral stage in cryopreserved grafts of fibrin-15%PL, compared to fresh grafts (35.01%).

Conclusion: The findings demonstrated that fibrin-PL matrix could be a promising strategy to improve cryopreserved follicle transplantation and preserve fertility in cancer patients at the risk of ovarian failure.

Keywords: Cryopreservation; Fibrin; Ovarian Follicle; Tissue Scaffolds.