Restoration of fertility in oophorectomized rats after tubo-ovarian transplantation

Improved microsurgical techniques for en bloc vascularized adnexal isograft in the rat is described. The graft of the right ovary together with its fallopian tube and upper third of uterus was transplanted orthotopically with end‐to‐side anastomoses between the donor aortic segment and recipient aorta and between the donor vena cava segment and recipient inferior vena cava, with end‐to‐end anastomosis of the donor and recipient uterus in a syngeneic, bilaterally oophorectomized rat. All transplantations were successful in terms of immediate vascular patency rate (10/10, 100%). Evidence of resumed ovarian function was obtained in 9 out of 10 rats (9/10, 90.0%) by histological demonstration of the vaginal smear, in which pregnancies were achieved in six rats (6/10, 60.0%) and six litters of healthy offspring were delivered 9 weeks later after transplantation. These results suggest that microsurgical ovarian transplantation provide a new and potential experimental model for the study of fertility restoration in humans. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. MICROSURGERY 22:30–33 2002 DOI 10.1002/micr.22006