Life span of ovarian grafts longer than expected
Study shows that ovarian grafts can produce hormones for more than 7 years
2012-06-29
(Press-News.org) Transplanting previously frozen ovarian tissue back into female cancer survivors can lead to long-term hormonal function and preservation of fertility, according to a new study by Samuel Kim from the University of Kansas Medical Center in the US. His work¹, which shows that hormonal function was restored in five women 12-20 weeks after transplantation, and in one case lasted for more than seven years, appears online in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics², published by Springer.
Many female cancer patients want to remain fertile, and choose to freeze some of their ovarian tissue prior to cancer treatment. Following treatment, the frozen tissue is thawed and transplanted back into the survivor's body, in a different location - known as a 'heterotopic site'. However, the longevity of grafted ovarian tissue has been debated for many years, and it is still uncertain how long hormonal (endocrine) function of frozen-thawed ovarian tissue can be maintained.
Kim studied five cancer survivors who had undergone heterotopic ovarian transplantation between 2001-2011. Their frozen ovaries were rapidly thawed and transplanted into the abdominal region. Kim measured both the levels and function of the reproductive hormones in these women via monthly blood tests and ultrasounds after hormonal activity was confirmed. The women were monitored until cessation of hormonal function.
He found that hormonal function was restored in all five patients 12-20 weeks after transplantation. Long-term follow-up in four patients showed that these women needed a second transplantation within two years of the first. Interestingly, restoration of ovarian function after the second transplantation was faster and lasted longer, between nine months and seven years.
The longest duration of hormonal function was seen in a 28-year-old women who underwent ovarian transplantation in 2003 and 2004 after radiotherapy for cervical cancer. Even seven years after transplantation, the grafts were still producing hormones.
Kim concludes: "Re-establishment of long-term endocrine function after ovarian transplantation will benefit young cancer survivors with premature ovarian failure. To my knowledge, this is the longest duration of ovarian function reported in the literature after heterotopic transplantation of frozen-thawed human ovarian tissue."
INFORMATION:
References
1. Kim SS (2012). Assessment of long term endocrine function after transplantation of frozen-thawed human ovarian tissue to the heterotropic site: 10 year longitudinal follow-up study. Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics; DOI 10.1007/s10815-012-9757-3
2. The Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics is published in cooperation with the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
The full-text article is available to journalists on request.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2012-06-29
URBANA -- Steve Moose, an associate professor of maize functional genomics at the University of Illinois and his graduate student Wes Barber think they may have discovered a new source of heterosis, or hybrid vigor, in maize. They have been looking at small RNAs (sRNAs), a class of double-stranded RNA molecules that are 20 to 25 nucleotides in length.
"Hybrid vigor" refers to the increased vigor or general health, resistance to disease, and other superior qualities arising from the crossbreeding of genetically different plants. "We've always known that there's a genetic ...
2012-06-29
Athens, Ga. – Weedy plants, many introduced to the U.S. for sale through plant nurseries, are responsible for extensive environmental damage and economic costs. Although legislation restricts the introduction of certain species, the procedures used to select species for inclusion on the restricted list are haphazard and out of date.
To meet the need for more systematic weed risk analysis, researchers at the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology and the University of California, Davis have developed a "cost-sensitive" model to determine when importing a given plant ...
2012-06-29
CHICAGO --- Today's senior citizens are reporting fewer visual impairment problems than their counterparts from a generation ago, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. Improved techniques for cataract surgery and a reduction in the prevalence of macular degeneration may be the driving forces behind this change, the researchers said.
"From 1984 until 2010, the decrease in visual impairment in those 65 and older was highly statistically significant," said Angelo P. Tanna, M.D., first author of the study. "There was little change in visual impairments in adults ...
2012-06-29
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, will hold a seminar early in the morning on July 4 to announce the latest results from ATLAS and CMS, two major experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that are searching for the Higgs boson. Both experimental teams are working down to the wire to finish analyzing their data, and to determine exactly what can be said about what they've found.
"We do not yet know what will be shown on July 4th," says Ian Hinchliffe, a theoretical physicist in the Physics Division at the U.S. ...
2012-06-29
For the first time comparable migration data is available for almost every country of the world. To date, records were incompatible between nations and especially by gender and age, nonexistent. Emilio Zagheni from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock, Germany, for the first time provides a rich migration database by compiling the global flow of millions of e-mails.
"Where estimates of demographic flows exist, they are often outdated and largely inconsistent," says MPIDR researcher Emilio Zagheni. Official records are difficult to use for ...
2012-06-29
Researchers at the Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML) and four partner organizations have measured for the first time concentrations of 13 perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) in five different endangered species of sea turtles. While PFC toxicology studies have not yet been conducted on turtles, the levels of the compounds seen in all five species approach the amounts known to cause adverse health effects in other animals.
PFCs are man-made compounds that have many uses including stain-resistant coatings, fire-fighting foams and emulsifiers in plastics manufacturing. They have ...
2012-06-29
In yet another Olympian feat of measurement, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently calibrated a tape that will be used to measure out the distance of this summer's Olympic marathon—a distance of 26 miles 385 yards—to 1 part in 1,000.
Measurement is a vital aspect of the Olympic Games. Officials measure the height of jumps, the speed of races, and the mass of weights to determine who wins a medal and who goes home. The marathon is no different. Because of the difficulties in measuring out the distance, the International Association ...
2012-06-29
Gold is not necessarily precious—at least not as a coating on atomic force microscope (AFM) probes.
JILA researchers found that removing an AFM probe's gold coating—until now considered helpful—greatly improved force measurements performed in a liquid, the medium favored for biophysical studies such as stretching DNA or unfolding proteins. As described in Nano Letters,* stripping the gold from the diving-board-shaped probe, or cantilever, with a brief chemical bath improved the precision and stability of force measurements about 10-fold. The advance is expected to quickly ...
2012-06-29
Civic leaders, arts organizations, donors and government officials can better plan new or expanded arts facilities by first focusing on the arts organizations' missions and assessing demand for the projects, according to a new study from the Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago.
The study, "Set in Stone," looks at a major building boom of museums, performing arts centers and theaters in the United States from 1994 to 2008. It is the first scientifically prepared study of its kind and was requested both by cultural leaders and major foundations that had, ...
2012-06-29
(Garrison, NY) A potentially powerful strategy for studying the significance of human genetic variants is to recruit people identified by previous genetic research as having particular variants. But that strategy poses ethical challenges to informed consent, as well as potential risks to the people recruited, and it is unlikely that there is a "one-size-fits-all" solution, concludes an article in IRB: Ethics & Human Research.
The advantage of "recruitment by genotype" is that it eliminates the time-consuming, expensive process of screening new populations to find subjects ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Life span of ovarian grafts longer than expected
Study shows that ovarian grafts can produce hormones for more than 7 years
