OBJECTIVE To evaluate and compare the laboratory and clinical outcomes of vitrification with slow-freezing method for cryopreservation of embryos and blastocysts in an in-vitro fertilisation programme. DESIGN Retrospective analysis of all the 104 cycles of frozen embryo and blastocyst replacements from 2003 to 2008 and all the 149 cycles with embryos or blastocysts for vitrification from 2006...

Cells can endure storage at low temperatures such as--196 degrees C for centuries. The challenge is to determine how they can survive both the cooling to such temperatures and the subsequent return to physiological conditions. A major factor is whether they freeze intracellularly. They do so if cooling is too rapid, because with rapid cooling insufficient cell water is removed osmotically to el...

The physiological mechanisms by which imbibed seeds survive freezing temperatures in their natural environment have been categorized as freezing avoidance by supercooling and freezing tolerance by extracellular freeze-desiccation, but the biochemical and molecular mechanisms conferring seed freezing tolerance is unexplored. In this study, using imbibed Lactuca sativa seeds we show that fast coo...

Embryo cryopreservation is an important aspect of assisted reproduction. Many methods have been described, but they have been poorly investigated in randomized trials, highlighting the need for a systematic review of the literature. Meticulous electronic/hand searches were performed to locate randomized trials (RCT) comparing embryo cryopreservation methods. Primary outcomes were clinical pregn...

BACKGROUND Vitrification is the standard method for cryopreserving human oocytes and embryos, but its effects on ovarian tissue are uncertain. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to compare the proportion of intact primordial follicles in ovarian tissue cryopreserved with vitrification versus slow freezing. METHODS Medline, Cochrane, EMBASE, and Google Scholar databases were searched until ...

This study concerned the response to freezing of Neurospora crassa conidia in four different states: air-dry, hydrated in water, hydrated in Vogel medium lacking only sucrose, or hydrated in complete Vogel medium. All hydrated conidia were incubated in one of the above media for various times before freezing and were then washed and frozen in distilled water. Viability was estimated by three te...

The objective of the present study was to establish an effective semen freezing procedure to set up a cryobank for chicken breeds and genetic lines of special interest. The fowls used in the experiments originated from White Leghorn lines maintained as conservation flocks. In this study, different protocols were evaluated in terms of differences in the fertilization success. 1 A) Comparison of ...

Infrared video thermography was used to observe ice nucleation temperatures, patterns of ice formation, and freezing rates in nonacclimated and cold acclimated leaves of a spring (cv Quest) and a winter (cv Express) canola (Brassica napus). Distinctly different freezing patterns were observed, and the effect of water content, sugars, and soluble proteins on the freezing process was characterize...