Received June 07, 2017
Accepted December 07, 2017

Objective: To evaluate the e ciency of ovarian tissue heterotopic autografting after vitri cation in prepubertal rats. Methods: Fragments of excised ovaries from prepu- bertal rats were used after assessing post-warming cellular viability, to determine the best vitri cation protocol prior to retroauricular autografting. Pre-pubertal females (N=24) were castrated and divided into three group: Group 1 - fresh ovarian tissue transplantation; Group 2 - vitri ed/ warmed tissue transplantation; Group 3 - bilateral oopho- rectomy without transplantation. The ovarian fragments were exposed to solutions from the Ingamed® commer- cial kit, allocated in bacteriological loops and immersed in liquid nitrogen. Sixty days after transplantation, a vaginal mucus sample was collected for cytology tests, followed by sacri cing the animal, performing a cardiac puncture for collecting a blood sample to determine luteinizing hormone and estradiol levels, and excision of the transplanted frag- ment for histology tests. Results: Vaginal cytology revealed that 87.5% of fe- males from groups 1 and 2 had estrus while all females in Group 3 remained in diestrus. The mean LH value in groups 1 (0.08 mIU/mL) and 2 (0.34 mIU/mL) were sta- tistically di erent from that of Group 3 (2.27 mIU/mL). E2 values did not di er between the groups. The histological analysis of Group 1 excised grafts versus those from Group 2 showed a higher percentage of primary follicles (62.5% vs. 12.5%), developing follicles (75% vs. 25%), corpus luteum (37.5% vs. 12.5%) and stromal region (100% vs. 87.5%). Conclusion: This study indicated that pre-pubertal ovarian tissue vitri cation can be used to preserve fertility and to restore endocrine function in castrated rats.