Effects of storage time and temperature on atresia of goat ovarian preantral follicles held in M199 with or without indole-3-acetic acid supplementation

Maintenance of follicular quality after removal and during transport of ovaries is necessary for studies on development of preantral follicles in vitro. The present work investigated the effectiveness of M199 and M199IAA for preservation of goat preantral follicles in ovarian tissue. At the slaughterhouse, the ovarian pair of each animal was divided into 19 fragments. One ovarian fragment was immediately fixed (control - Time 0). The other 18 fragments were randomly distributed in M199 or M199IAA at 4, 20 or 39 degreesC and stored for 4, 12 or 24 h. Histological analysis showed that storage of ovarian fragments in either solution at 20 or 39 degreesC significantly reduced the percentage of normal preantral follicles when compared with the control, in all cases except after preservation in M199IAA at 20 degreesC for 4 h. In contrast, preservation at 4 degreesC, in either solution, kept the percentage of normal preantral follicles at control values. Reduced cellular metabolism may explain why the best preservation of preantral follicles was at 4 degreesC. The addition of IAA to the TCM 199 was effective for goat preantral follicle preservation at 20 degreesC for 4 h. (C) 2001 by Elsevier Science Inc.