Survival and development of human embryos was compared following slow cooling versus vitrification involving more than 13,000 vitrified embryos. In addition, the efficacy of an open system, the Cryotop, and a closed vitrification system, the CryoTip(trade mark), were compared using human blastocysts. One hundred percent of vitrified human pronuclear stage embryos survived and 52% developed to b...

BACKGROUND Oocyte cryopreservation is an important part of modern fertility treatment. The effect of vitrification on the fertilization and developmental rates of embryo is still a matter of debate. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to investigate the effect of vitrification on the success of mouse oocyte maturation, fertilization, and preimplantation development in vitro. MATERIALS AND METHODS I...

OBJECTIVE To compare the mouse oocyte vitrification outcomes of the CryoLogic vitrification method (CVM) and the conventional open method using a Cryotop. Two CVM methods (original CVM and modified CVM) were tested. METHODS Mature oocytes obtained from female BDF-1 mice were vitrified by two-step exposure to equilibrium and vitrification solutions. Three vitrification protocols were tested on...

This study examined a new method for vitrification of blastocysts that is safe, simple and easy to learn and use. Current vitrification techniques have shortcomings that include the use of dimethyl sulphoxide, one of the more toxic cryoprotectants, and minute containers that are difficult to handle and are usually open to contamination. Cell handling and loading times are very short, which allo...

BACKGROUND Obesity is associated with poor reproductive outcomes, but few reports have examined thawed embryo transfer in obese women. Many studies have shown that increased lipid accumulation aggravates vitrification injury in porcine and bovine embryos, but oocytes of these species have high lipid contents (63 ng and 161 ng, respectively). Almost nothing is known about lipids in human oocytes...

This study was conducted to report the clinical-pregnancy outcome after vitrification of the blastocysts produced from in vitro maturation cycles. The survival rate after thawing was 92.0% (92/100). The clinical-pregnancy and implantation rates were 43.8% and 23.6%, respectively. These results suggest that the blastocyst-stage embryos produced from in vitro maturation cycles can be safely cryop...

During in vitro fertilization treatment (IVF), a surplus of oocytes is produced which results in a surplus of embryos which must be preserved. Due to the recent tendency in ART treatment to transfer fewer embryos in order to avoid multiple pregnancies, partly a result of new laws and guidelines aimed at controlling the number of embryos to be transferred and the number of oocytes to be fertiliz...

There is no generally accepted value for the lower temperature limit for life on Earth. We present empirical evidence that free-living microbial cells cooling in the presence of external ice will undergo freeze-induced desiccation and a glass transition (vitrification) at a temperature between -10°C and -26°C. In contrast to intracellular freezing, vitrification does not result in death and cel...

Is the timing of vitrification after trophectoderm (TE) biopsy associated with successful implantation and pregnancy after the embryo transfer of blastocysts subjected to preimplantation genetic screening (PGS)? In this retrospective cohort study, 1329 blastocysts from 223 patients were subjected to TE biopsy for performing array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) tests. The PGS and frozen...

OBJECTIVE To study the thermal properties of a cryoprotectant solution, called VS4, and of VS4-impregnated whole sheep ovaries with pedicle. DESIGN Physical and experimental animal study. SETTING Academic research environment. ANIMAL(S) Five- to 6-month-old ewes. INTERVENTION(S) Thermal properties on cooling of a cryoprotectant solution called VS4 were measured by differential scanning ...