Cryopreservation of canid and felid gonadal tissues

In seasonally breeding species, mature sperm or eggs are often not available during the majority of the year. In these situations, we would like to be able to rescue genetic material from valuable animals via ovarian and testicular tissue. This tissues could be preserved via cryopreservation or vitrification, until methods to produce mature sperm or eggs in vitro or via transplantation have been developed/are needed. However, techniques to preserve tissues have not been developed for many species. We have been evaluating various methods of cryopreservation and warming for the preservation of canid and felid gonadal tissues, including slow-freezing, needle-immersion vitrification, and laser-warming on tissue survival and developmental potential.

Published manuscripts

Hartzler, K.E., McCartney, C., Songsasen, N., & Nagashima, J.B. (2023) Cryopreservation of African painted dog (Lycaon pictus) ovarian tissue. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 10:1134726.

Rowlison, T. Nagashima, J. (equal contributors), Acker, J.P., Ben, R., Daly, J., Hagedorn, M., and Comizzoli, P. (2022). First report of successful laser warming of gonadal tissues and oocytes in the domestic cat model. Biopreservation and Biobanking. 

Andrae, C., Oliviera, E.C.S., Ferraz, M.D.A.M.M., Nagashima, J.B. (equal contributors) (2021) Cryoprservation of grey wolf (Canis lupus) testicular tissue. Cryobiology. doi: 10.1016/j.cryobiol.2021.01.010