Restoration of fertility by transplantation of mouse ovary obtained postmortem

During the course of breeding mice, deaths sometimes occur because of sudde n-onset disease or accident. In the case of valuable mutant or transgenic m ice, it is of interest to know whether ovarian tissue taken after death can be grafted successfully into ovariectomized female recipients. Such a proc edure would be helpful in the maintenance of rare mouse strains. In this st udy, we examined whether recipient mice became fertile after receiving ovar ies taken from transgenic mice at various intervals after death. The transg enic mice used as donors were euthanized by cervical dislocation and left f or 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, or 24 h after death at constant temperature (22 +/- 2 de greesC) and humidity (55 +/- 5%), The recipient mice were nontransgenic lit termates of the donor mice, and they were mated with proven-fertile males a fter ovary transplantation. It was confirmed that the progeny carried the t ransgene by means of polymerase chain reaction analysis. Ovaries taken at 1 or 2 h after death could maintain fertility. However, mice receiving ovari es taken at 4, 6, 12, or 24 h after death failed to conceive. We have shown here that ovaries taken from dead mice within 2 h after death can be trans planted successfully.