Fig. 1.

Study design. Two cryopreservation techniques, slow-freezing and vitrification, and two preparatory treatments of the grafting site prior to transplantation, a healed or freshly decorticated bed, were compared using 10 ovaries. In a random manner, four ovaries were completely removed from the hilum, and six ovaries were partially removed maintaining a small part of the cortex. Randomly again, cortical strips from one ovary were slow-frozen and cortical strips from the contralateral ovary were vitrified. Some pieces of fresh tissue were immediately fixed and used as controls. One month later, the slow-frozen or vitrified ovarian strips were thawed or warmed, respectively. They were then autografted to a healed or freshly decorticated bed. Six months later, the grafts were removed and histologically analyzed for different parameters