Oocyte cryopreservation is of key importance in the preservation and propagation of germplasm. Interest in oocyte cryopreservation has increased in recent years due to the application of assisted reproductive technologies in farm animals such as in vitro fertilization, nuclear transfer and the need for the establishment of ova/gene banks worldwide. However, the cryopreservation of the female ga...

Bone marrow (BM) is a complex tissue containing populations of progenitor and stem cells (1). One type, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), can renew circulating blood elements such as red blood cells, monocytes, platelets, granulocytes and lymphocytes. The other is mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which possess two important properties of long-term self renewal and differentiate into osteoblasts, c...

In swine, five to six days post-insemination, morulae and blastocysts are collected together after uterine flushing. The purpose of this study was to vitrify zona pellucida-intact morulae with Open Pulled Straw (OPS) technology and obtain piglets after transfer. Morulae (200) were vitrified after a two-step equilibration in ethylene glycol, dimethyl sulfoxide and sucrose in Hepes-buffered TCM19...

The objective was to determine cryotolerance of in vitro cultured rabbit embryos to the open-pulled straw (OPS) method. Overall, 844 rabbit embryos at pronuclear, 2- to 4-cell, 8-cell, and morula/blastocyst stages were vitrified, and ≥ 1 mo later, were sequentially warmed, rehydrated, and subjected to continuous culture (n = 691) or embryo transfer (ET, n = 153). Embryos vitrified at the 8-cell...

Background Oocyte cryopreservation is an essential part of the assisted reproductive technology (ART), which was recently introduced into clinical practice. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of two vitrification systems-Cryotop and Open Pulled Straw (OPS)-on mature oocytes gene expressions. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this experimental study, the survival rate of metaphase II (MII) mouse ...

The objectives of this study were to: (1) determine an optimal cryoprotectant of mice embryos; and (2) determine whether morula or blastocyst stage is ideal for vitrification in both medias. One experiment was performed using two different medias for vitrification with open pulled straws (OPS) with morulae and blastocysts. In the first protocol, we called V, embryos were exposed to 10% ethylene...

The in vitro maturation (IVM), fertilization (IVF) and morphological changes in buffalo cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) cryopreserved by ultra rapid freezing using conventional (CON) and open-pulled straw (OPS) methods were tested. COCs were cryopreserved using a vitrification solution comprising of DPBS + 0.5M sucrose + 0.4% BSA and two concentrations (4.5 or 5.5M) of each cryoprotectant ethyl...