With the recent report of a pregnancy and delivery after autotransplantation of cryopreserved-thawed ovarian cortical strips, preservation of the reproductive potential resurfaced. There is a growing academic and public interest in exploring the available strategies for fertility preservation in patients at risk. This is due to the increasing incidence of cancer during the reproductive age. The...

Canine embryos (8-cell to blastocyst stages) frozen-thawed using the slow-freezing method with glycerol (four recipients) or dimethyl sulfoxide (three recipients) as a cryoprotectant and vitrified-warmed using the Cryotop method (five recipients) were surgically transferred into the unilateral uterine horn of recipient bitches. As a result, the morphology of embryos frozen-thawed using the slow...

Embryo cryopreservation has become a standard procedure in the practice of assisted reproduction. While routinely performed in IVF labs, the effects of embryo vitrification on the molecular mechanisms governing preimplantation development remain largely unknown. The endoplasmic reticulum stress (ER stress) response is an evolutionary conserved mechanism that cells employ to manage ER stress. ER...

This short review attempts to describe several important aspects of research at the RIAP Nitra in the area of embryo manipulation with in vivo-derived or in vitro produced cattle embryos performed from the beginning of an embryo transfer era and up to date. The paper summarizes results of more important studies including: manipulations on embryos (embryo transfer, embryo bisection for creation ...

A novel hollow fiber vitrification (HFV) method was applied to materials that have previously been difficult to cryopreserve, thereby expanding the potential application of this method. The results showed that zona-free porcine morulae and their isolated blastomeres remained viable even after vitrification. The rate of development to blastocysts after vitrification was similar for zona-free and...

Many salmonid species have recently become at risk of extinction. For fish species where eggs cannot be cryopreserved, establishment of techniques to preserve genetic resources other than egg and embryo cryopreservation is imperative. In the present study, spermatogonia from male trout were transplanted into the peritoneal cavity of newly hatched sterile triploid salmon. Transplanted trout sper...

The cryopreservation of immature GV oocytes by vitrification is offering attractive perspectives, since they represent an important pool of germ cells for women undergoing IVM cycles, or at risk of infertility for OHSS or PCOs, particularly those poor responders to gonadotropin stimulation, or in case of cancer. Therefore, it becomes necessary to optimize both cryopreservation technique as well...

Background: ROS production is a well-established phenomenon during sperm cryopreservation. Therefore, supplementation of freezing media with antioxidant is an inevitable event. The aim of this study was to assess whether a cell permeable superoxide dismutase agent such as MnTE, can further improve the quality of frozen/ thawed semen sample using a commercially optimized sperm cryopreservation m...

For patients who are planning to have chemotherapy, radiotherapy or to undergo bilateral oophorectomy, loss of ovarian function will result in premature ovarian menopause and loss of fertility. For these women, although there is no successful method for the cryopreservation of human oocytes, ovarian tissue cryobanking is proposed with a view to its autotransplantation at a later date or the iso...

BACKGROUND Whether extended culture allowing selection of embryos with high development potential has any advantage over cleavage-stage embryo transfer remains a matter of debate. Among the currently unsolved questions, the cumulative delivery rate resulting from fresh and frozen embryo transfers needs to be taken into account in both strategies. The aim of our study was, therefore, to compare ...