Fertility preservation through gonadal cryopreservation

Fertility preservation is an area of immense interest in today's society. The most effective and established means of fertility preservation is cryopreservation of gametes (sperm and oocytes) and embryos. Gonadal cryopreservation is yet another means for fertility preservation, especially if the gonadal function is threatened by premature menopause, gonadotoxic cancer treatment, surgical castration, or diseases. It can also aid in the preservation of germplasm of animals that die before attaining sexual maturity. This is especially of significance for valuable, rare, and endangered animals whose population is affected by high neonatal/juvenile mortality because of diseases, poor management practices, or inbreeding depression. Establishing genome resource banks to conserve the genetic status of wild animals will provide a critical interface between ex-situ and in-situ conservation strategies. Cryopreservation of gonads effectively lengthens the genetic lifespan of individuals in a breeding program even after their death and contributes towards germplasm conservation of prized animals. Although the studies on domestic animals are quite promising, there are limitations for developing cryopreservation strategies in wild animals. In this review, we discuss different options for gonadal tissue cryopreservation with respect to humans and to laboratory, domestic, and wild animals. This review also covers recent developments in gonadal tissue cryopreservation and transplantation, providing a systematic view and the advances in the field with the possibility for its application in fertility preservation and for the conservation of germplasm in domestic and wild species.

The spermatozoa of the dasyurid marsupial, Sminthopsis crassicaudata, are highly susceptible to cold shock

Since the late 1970s research has suggested that marsupial spermatozoa did not suffer cold shock. We have re-examined cold shock to investigate problems with freezing of spermatozoa from a dasyurid marsupial, the fat-tailed dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata). Epididymal spermatozoa were rapidly cooled to 0.5°C in a pre-cooled tube held in an iced-water slurry. Upon re-warming all spermatozoa were immotile and the addition of 10% or 20% egg yolk to the sperm medium had no beneficial effect. Spermatozoa that were rapidly cooled to 4°C maintained only 2% motility when re-warmed but the addition of at least 10% egg yolk was beneficial and upon re-warming greater than 65% of the initial motility was maintained. In order to achieve motile spermatozoa at 0°C, controlled-rate cooling at 0.5°C min–1 was examined. In the absence of egg yolk there was a significant decline in the percentage of motile spermatozoa below 4°C. However, the inclusion of at least 10% egg yolk resulted in no loss of motility in spermatozoa cooled to 0°C. This is the first experimental study indicating that spermatozoa from a marsupial are highly susceptible to cold shock and that the impact of rapid chilling can be mitigated by the addition of 10% egg yolk. The ability to successfully cool the spermatozoa of S. crassicaudata to 0°C may have an important role in future studies examining dasyurid sperm cryopreservation.