Microsurgical ovarian transplantation in the primate

We have developed a technique for orthotopic transplantation of ovaries by microsurgical reanastomosis of the ovarian blood vessels in rhesus monkeys. Four monkeys receiving autografts resumed cyclic menses and had postoperative circulating luteinizing hormone (LH) and progesterone concentrations consistent with developing follicles and corpus luteum function. Postoperative luteal phase ovarian biopsies were indicative of ovulation in three of the four animals. However, in a fifth recipient an ovarian allograft from an unrelated donor was rejected despite the use of a standard immunosuppressive regimen. This study suggests that ovarian transplantation by direct vascular anastomosis is a technically feasible surgical procedure in the human, where the vascular anatomy is similar and the caliber of the ovarian vessels if greater than in the rhesus monkey.