Immature Cryopreserved Ovary Restores Puberty and Fertility in Mice without Alteration of Epigenetic Marks

BACKGROUND: Progress in oncology could improve survival rate in children, but would probably lead to impaired fertility and puberty. In pre-pubertal girls, the only therapeutic option is the cryopreservation of one ovary. Three births have been reported after reimplantation of cryopreserved mature ovary. Conversely, reimplantation of ovary preserved before puberty (defined as immature ovary) has never been performed in humans. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In order to analyze ovarian function, we performed transplantation using fresh or cryopreserved immature grafts in pre-pubertal or adult mice. Puberty as well as cyclic hormonal activity was restored. All follicle populations were present although a significant reduction in follicle density was observed with or without cryopreservation. Although fertility was restored, the graft is of limited life span. Because ex vivo ovary manipulation and cryopreservation procedure, the status of genomic imprinting was investigated. Methylation status of the H19 and Lit1 Imprinting Control Regions in kidney, muscle and tongue of offsprings from grafted mice does not show significant alteration when compared to those of unoperated mice. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results demonstrate that immature ovarian grafting can restore spontaneous puberty and fertility. However, these data suggest that follicle depletion leads to premature ovarian failure. This study addresses the very important epigenetics issue, and provides valuable information to the study of ovarian transplantation suggesting that these procedures do not perturb normal epigenetics marks. These results are highly relevant to the reimplantation question of immature cortex in women

Data Journalism and Investigative Reporting in the Arab World: From Emotive to Evidence-Based Journalism

Data-driven journalism is still somewhat new in the Arab world, and despite some promising initiatives, there are a few obstacles that Arab journalism faces in this transitional period to data journalism. This chapter will discuss two of these challenges: the first is traditional practices of Arab reporting that can be described as emotive in nature, and the second is the lack of data and access to information. Nonetheless, reporters, and particularly investigative journalists in the region, are working towards addressing these two challenges especially through the training of the next generation of journalists. Interestingly, data journalism is being adopted by Arab investigative reporters with the aim of producing evidence-based reporting, and for that reason this chapter will focus specifically on that form of journalism. James S. Ettema and Theodore L. Glaser (1998) point out that emotion and persuasion also play a role in American investigative journalism: hence, they define investigative journalism as ‘the fiercest of indignation fused with the hardest of fact’ (Ettema and Glasser 1998, 10). In this definition, investigative journalism is characterised by a morally engaged voice which seeks to evoke ‘public moral indignation (Ettema and Glasser 1998, 10). In accordance, this chapter argues that investigative journalism in the Arab world is already characterised by the ‘fiercest of indignation’ but is now seeking to fuse that with the ‘hardest of facts’. Ettema and Glaser (1998) state that: ‘Investigative reporting yields stories that are carefully verified and skillfully narrated accounts of specific injury and injustice, but stories with a meaning that transcends the facts of the particular case’ (Ettema and Glasser 1998: 3)