First they did it in rats. Now a sheep’s ovary has been removed whole, then frozen, thawed and successfully transplanted back into the same animal. Crucially, the ovary produced eggs capable of becoming embryos.
The experiment raises hopes that women might one day be able to become mothers after cancer therapies have left them infertile.
The aggressive radiation or chemotherapy used to treat many cancers can damage ovaries, so women often have eggs removed before therapy and frozen for future use. But less than 2 per cent of these oocytes survive. An alternative is to remove a slice of an…
