Saturday 2 March 2013

Cryopreservation: A Chance for Highly Endangered Mammals



Feb. 27, 2013 — Oocytes of lions, tigers and other cat species survive the preservation in liquid nitrogen. Scientists of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin succeeded in carrying out cryopreservation of felid ovary cortex.
"We have successfully frozen and thawed oocytes in the ovary cortex of different cat species at minus 196 degrees Celsius. This freezing process and the storage of living cellular material in liquid nitrogen is called cryopreservation," said Caterina Wiedemann, doctoral candidate at the IZW.

The ovarian cortex is regarded as a reservoir of reproductive cells. It contains thousands of immature oocytes. Successful cryopreservation of ovarian tissue of wild cats is therefore a key element for the establishment of genome resource banks, an important tool for the preservation of genetic diversity. All felid species except for the domestic cats are listed on the Red List for endangered species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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