Kate Potocsky
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Jordan Machlin
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Biomedical Engineering / Engineering
Program: UROP
Session: Session 4 (1:40pm – 2:30pm)
Authors: Kate Potocsky, Jordan Machlin, Ariella Shikanov
Abstract
Prepubescent children and adolescents are surviving cancer at increasing rates every year. With this incredible news comes the unfortunate rise in fertility issues later in life due to gonadotoxic cancer treatments that can render individuals infertile. While a common method for treating infertility in cancer survivors is ovarian stimulation followed by egg retrieval, this procedure is not applicable to pre-pubescent individuals due to their immature brain/gonad axis. In the Shikanov Lab, we aim to expand the fertility preservation options for patients using in vitro follicle culture from the earliest developmental stage possible. To do this, we are investigating the Hippo and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways in an in vitro human tissue culture system. These pathways are involved in mechanical activation of primordial follicles. We introduce minimal biomechanical manipulation of these pathways by cutting ovarian tissue into large strips and culturing them at different time points of 0 hours, 6 hours, 24 hours, and 48 hours. After culture, tissue stips are fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde and paraffin embedded. The fixed tissue pieces from all 4 timepoints are sectioned onto slides using a microtome. We stain every other slide with hematoxylin and eosin to allow us to count follicles and classify their stages. With the other half of the slides, we use immunofluorescence staining to analyze cellular mediators of the Hippo and PI3K/Akt pathways, YAP and FOXO1. We expect to see more and faster activation of follicles when they are exposed to pathway activators compared to control media. Our culture system can support all stages of folliculogenesis from primordial to antral stages. . The aim of this project is to determine if biomechanical manipulation of the Hippo and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways will activate folliculogenesis, with the future goal of obtaining mature oocytes for fertility preservation in prepubertal patients.
