China has successfully completed ovarian tissue cryopreservation and transplantation to help women who lost ovarian function because of tumor treatments and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, also known as bone marrow transplant, preserve their fertility.

“Twenty-six women in China have successfully gotten their ovarian endocrine function back through OTC and OTT technologies,” Ruan Xiangyan, director of endocrinology at Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, told Yicai. “Some of the women have successfully become pregnant and given birth.”

The principle of OTC and OTT technologies is to use cryobiology to preserve ovarian tissue before the fertility of a female patient is significantly reduced or lost due to tumor treatments or bone marrow transplant and then transplant the ovarian tissue back into the body to restore the patient’s ovarian endocrine function and fertility to a certain extent.

“Even though China started developing the technology 17 years later than abroad, the success rate in the country is higher than the international average of 70 percent,” Ruan noted.

Ruan’s team established China’s first ovarian tissue cryopreservation bank in 2012 and completed the country’s first cryopreserved ovarian tissue transplantation in 2016.

In 2021, Ruan’s team completed China’s first transplantation of ovarian tissue that was cryopreserved for a patient with myelodysplastic syndrome. The woman successfully gave birth after the procedure.

OCT and OTT technologies are the only fertility preservation technologies for prepubertal girls as they are unable to induce ovulation and freeze eggs and embryos, Ruan explained.

“Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital has completed the cryopreservation of ovarian tissue of more than 550 children and young patients, the youngest being only seven months old, a record for ovarian cryopreservation in Asia,” Ruan noted. “The child needed a bone marrow transplant because of acute lymphoma, which would have certainly damaged her ovaries.

“The first step of cryopreservation of ovarian tissue is a minimal laparoscopic invasive surgery,” Ruan pointed out. “The patients will then be responsible for cryopreservation costs, which are about CNY80 (USD11) a month. If patients freeze 10 ovarian pieces, the total annual cost would be around CNY10,000 (USD1,390).

“Theoretically, ovarian tissue can be frozen and preserved for decades and used in multiple transplants,” Ruan said. “The cryopreserved ovarian tissue from China’s first case in 2016 is still alive and well after nearly eight years.”

Image: China Completes Ovarian Tissue Cryopreservation, Transplant to Help Patients Preserve Fertility. Credit: Yicai Global

Source: Yicai Global