BACKGROUND Nowadays, oocytes and embryos vitrification has become a routine technique. Based on clinical judgment, re-vitrification maybe required. But little is known about re-vitrification impact on genes expression. OBJECTIVE The impact of re-vitrification on apoptotic and implanting genes, Bax, Bcl-2 and ErbB4, at compaction stage embryos were evaluated in this study. MATERIALS AND METH...

The techniques of cryopreservation let embryos which cannot be immediately transferred to the patient be stored for future use. The first successful pregnancy after transfer of cryopreserved human embryos was described in 1983 by Trounson et al. and the first birth after cryopreservation was later reported in 1984 by Zeilmaker et al.). The technique has rapidly been applied in most in-vitro fer...

Telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein, has been described as an essential component of highly proliferative cells as it stabilizes the telomeres and avoids cellular senescence. The objective of this study was to modify the polymerase chain reaction-based telomeric repeat amplification protocol to detect telomerase activity in the single cell and to characterize the activity expressed in the human ooc...

In this study, the effect of heat shock on frozen-thawed blastocysts was evaluated using in vitro-produced (IVP) bovine embryos. In experiment 1, the effects of 6 h of heat shock at 41.0 C on fresh blastocysts were evaluated. HSPA1A expression as a reflection of stress was increased by heat shock (P < 0.05), but the expressions of the quality markers IFNT and POU5F1 were not affected. In experi...

The aim of the study was to analyse the toxicity, the osmolar and cryoprotective activity of ethylene glycol (ETG) in terms of survival rate (SR), cleavage rate (CR) and expanded blastocysts percentage (EBP) of mouse embryos. Early mouse embryos and blastocysts were slowly cooled with ETG, 1,2-propanediol (PROH) or glycerol, and thawed. The Van t'Hoff curve for 1.5 mol/l ETG showed recovery of ...

STUDY QUESTION What is the incidence of aneuploidy and mosaicism in all cells of top-quality Day-4 embryos analysed by array-based comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH)? SUMMARY ANSWER Our data show extensive abnormalities in Day-4 embryos. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Numerous studies on human embryos at Day 3 and Day 5 of development show that they frequently contain aneuploid cells and ...

BACKGROUND Embryo culture media used for IVF treatment might affect fetal growth and thus birthweight of the newborns. METHODS A retrospective study was conducted in South China using data from 2370 singleton neonates born after IVF/ICSI between 2009 and 2012. Two culture media, i.e., either Vitrolife or SAGE were used as embryo culture media during the study period. Neonates' birthweights we...

Frozen-thawed spermatozoa collected from a beef bull (Japanese Black) were used for in vitro fertilization (IVF) of matured oocytes obtained from dairy (Holstein) and beef (Japanese Black) females. Embryos were examined for fertilization, cleavage rate, interval between insemination and blastocyst production (experiment I), total cell number per embryo and sex ratio during blastocyst formation ...

Culture environment during in vitro embryo production can affect phenotype and pregnancy outcomes, making culture modifications a logical approach for improving competence. Previously, the addition of growth factors FGF2, LIF, IGF1, termed FLI, to medium improved bovine development, re-expansion following cryopreservation. The objective this study was investigate survival cryopreserved FLI trea...