Human umbilical cord stem cell conditioned medium versus serum-free culture medium in the treatment of cryopreserved human ovarian tissues in in-vitro culture: a randomized controlled trial

摘要

Background To reduce young female fertility loss, the in-vitro culture of cryopreserved ovarian cortical tissues (OCTs) is considered an effective approach without delaying treatment and undergoing stimulation medicine. However, ischemic damage and follicular loss during the in-vitro culture of OCTs are major technical challenges. Human umbilical cord stem cells (HUMSCs) and their conditioned medium (HUMSC-CM) have been considered to be potential resources for regeneration medicine because they secrete cytokines and enhance cell survival and function. The aim of this study was to determine whether HUMSC-CM improves the development of frozen-thawed in-vitro cultured ovarian tissues compared with a serum-free culture medium (SF-CM). Methods The thawed OCTs ( n =?68) were cultivated in HUMSC-CM and SF-CM in vitro for 8?days, and the ovarian tissues were processed and analyzed by a classical histological evaluation. The microvessel density (MVD) and apotosis detection during in-vitro culture of OCTs were also performed. Results A significant difference in the rate of morphologically normal primordial follicles in the HUMSC-CM group was observed compared to that in the SF-CM group (group C) from days 2 to 4 (day 2: group B 58.0?±?2.45% vs group C 32.0?±?5.83%, p =?0.002; day 3: group B 55.5?±?4.20% vs group C 21.0?±?9.80%, p =?0.048; day 4: group B 52.0?±?4.08% vs group C 21.5?±?8.19%, p =?0.019). The microvessel density (MVD) detection showed a time-dependent increase and peaked on day 4. There was a significant difference between groups B (49.33?±?0.58) and C (24.33?±?3.79) ( p =?0.036). The percentage of apoptotic follicles in group B was lower than that in group C on day 1 (13.75?±?2.50% vs 27.0?±?10.10%, p =?0.003), day 5 (11.75?±?1.50% vs 51.0?±?10.5%, p =?0.019) and day 7 (15.0?±?5.10% vs 46.5?±?21.75%, p =?0.018). Conclusions These data have provided the first experimental evidence of the effect of HUMSC-CM on frozen-thawed OCTs in vitro. The results showed that the HUMSC-CM group provided a better protecting effect on the in-vitro culture of the cryopreserved OCTs compared to the SF-CM group.