Yulian Zhao
Mayo Clinic, USA
Title: Reproductive tissue banking for young boys of pre-reproductive age
Biography
Biography: Yulian Zhao
Abstract
Loss of fertility can significantly compromise quality of life. For populations of reproductive age, fertility preservation strategies have been well established and widely used, but most of the technologies are not options for pediatric age group, because of their sexual immaturity. Majority of such cases would be cancer patients. One of the medical late effects of cancer treatment is infertility or severely compromised fertility. Fertility preservation is of great importance to psychological well-being and to the quality of life for these patients. Fertility preservation for this population has become an issue of attention in recent decades. Strategies for long-term preservation and storage of reproductive tissue for this particular population are of key importance for scientific research and reproductive medicine. This emerging field encompasses cryopreservation of reproductive cells including testicular cell suspensions and testicular tissue. There are 3 potential strategies under active investigation. The first one is to cryopreserve testicular tissue or cell suspension before cancer therapy. Once the patient is cured from cancer and ready to begin a family, the tissue or cells could be thawed and re-implanted into the patient's own testes to continue full maturation. The second option is in vitro differentiation of testicular tissue. Spermatozoa may be generated from spermatogonial stem cells in vitro until they can be used for in vitro fertilization or be re-implanted into the testes. The third one is that immature cryopreserved testicular tissue may be grafted into another organ or tissue of the patient. These fertility restoration techniques have been successfully applied in several animal models and are considered to be very promising for future clinical applications in human.