Received October 07, 2016
Accepted February 01, 2017

Objective: To evaluate the heterologous transplantation of fresh ovarian germinative cells in comparison with the homologous transplantation in rabbits. Methods: Twelve white New Zealand female rabbits (Oryctolagus Cuniculus) were randomly numbered and submitted to bilateral oophorectomy. Ovaries from the six odd-numbered rabbits were dissected and the cortical germinative tissue was digested in collagenase type 1 to obtain six solutions containing stromal and germinative cells, which were injected in the abdominal region of the odd-numbered rabbits themselves (homologous transplantation) and in the subsequent even-numbered rabbit (heterologous transplantation) without the use of immunosuppressants. Sixty days after transplantation, the tissue around the transplanted region was excised, processed and sent to histological analysis with hematoxylin-eosin and immunohistochemistry with Bcl-2 marking to verify the presence and viability of the transplanted cells. Results: All the analyzed specimens showed the presence of ovarian stroma, while follicular cells were found in 66.6% of the homologous and 60% of the heterologous samples. Mild inflammatory reaction was observed in all heterologous samples, and only in 1 (16.7%) of the homologous samples. However, this inflammatory reaction was not so intense as to cause apoptosis of the implanted cells. All samples, except for rabbits 7 and 8, were Bcl-2 stained, indicating that most of biopsied tissue was viable. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the heterologous transplantation of fresh ovarian germinal cells seems to be feasible. However, more studies are required to further our understanding and improve the germinative cell separation technique.