FIG. 1.

(A) Surgical procedure: cell sheet (CS)-transplantation. To transplant ID8 CSs, microsurgery was used to place CSs directly underneath the ovarian bursa of 6–8 week-old, female C57BL/6 mice. (B) Total animal body weights. Body weights were recorded bi-weekly and immediately before surgeries. Both injected cell suspensions (ICS) and CS transplantation groups as well as control groups gradually gained weight over 10 weeks. At the 12 week time point, weight gain in the CS transplantation groups accelerated significantly compared with ICS and controls (p=0.0081, p=0.1595, respectively). (C) Ovarian weights. Ovaries were harvested at each time point, separated from uterine tubes, and weighed. On comparing controls and CS groups at 8 and 12 weeks, a significant difference was found (p<0.0001). Significant differences were seen in ICS versus CS groups at 8 weeks (p=0.006) and 12 weeks (p=0.0008). (D) Ovarian volume. Ovaries were harvested at each time point, separated from uterine tubes and ovarian volumes were determined according to V=0.5×(L×W)², with L being the tumor length (longest dimension) and W the width (shortest dimension). Both ovarian weights and volumes demonstrated significant differences at the 8 and 12 week time points (p<0.0001). Moreover, both ICS and CS groups presented with differences at 8 weeks (p=0.0990) and more obvious difference at 12 weeks (p=0.0112). (E) Bilateral hystero-oophorectomies were performed at predetermined time points. (a) One week post-transplantation of the ID8 CS. Weight: 0.00245±0.001 g versus 0.03873±0.009 g (p<0.001, n=4), volume: 1.459±0.71 mm³ versus 40.35935±21.102 mm³ (p=0.035, n=4) for noncancerous and cancerous ovaries, respectively. (b) Four weeks post-transplantation of the ID8 CS. Weight: 0.0058±0.00076 g versus 0.02682±0.012336 g (p=0.014, n=5), volume 3.6272±1.20696 mm³ versus 25.5356±13.11968 mm³ (p=0.012, n=5) for noncancerous and cancerous ovaries, respectively. Color images available online at www.liebertpub.com/tec