Korean J Fertil Steril.  1999 Aug;26(2):127-135.

The Evaluation of Various Conditions in the Cryopreservation of Mouse Embryos - Rapid and Slow Method of Cryopreservation, Culture Media and Cell Stages

• Yi SY
• Kwwon JT
• Song HW
• Cho YH
• Lee KS
• Rheu CH
• Kim JD

Abstract

Cryopreservation is able to store the surplus pre-embryos for freezing and furthermore thawing and transfer in a subsequent cycle. Cryopreserving cells which are maintaining their viability are the very complex process. This study has been carried out in order to find the effects of cryopreservation steps, freezing media and embryonic stages on the rates of viability and development of cryopreserved mouse embryos. Female ICR mice (6~8 weeks old) were induced to superovulate by sequential intraperitoneal injection of 5 IU PMSG and 5 IU hGC 48h apart. Mouse embryos were collected according to its developmental stage after the injection of hCG. Embryos were cryopreserved not only by cryoprotectant step (1 step~ 4 step) but also in a variety of media (HTF, IVF medium, D-PBS) and cell stage. The results were as follows: There is no clear advantage in these freezing media of rapid method, but 4 cell and 8 cell of slow method (2, 3, 4 step) have advantage in D-PBS. The development of embryos according to cell stage become greater in 8 cell stage. In the treatment steps of cryopreservation, the development of embryo to blastocyst was similar among rapid method, but the development of 4 cell and 8 cell embryos to blastocyst according to slow method was better than rapid method.

MeSH Terms

Animals
Blastocyst
Cryopreservation*
Culture Media*
Embryonic Structures*
Female
Freezing
Humans
Injections, Intraperitoneal
Mice*
Mice, Inbred ICR
Culture Media