Interest in oocyte cryopreservation has recently increased with the growing importance of in vitro embryo production, nuclear transfer, and gene banking (Gordon, 1997; Andrus et al., 2000). A relatively recent approach to achieve rapid freezing without the use of expensive freezing devices is called vitrification. Vitrification is defined as the physical process by which a highly concentrated s...

BACKGROUND Vitrification is now a commonly applied technique for cryopreservation in assisted reproductive technology (ART) replacing, in many cases, conventional slow cooling methodology. This review examines evidence relevant to comparison of the two approaches applied to human oocytes and embryos at different developmental stages. METHODS Critical review of the published literature using P...

Gorgonian corals are slowly declining due to human interaction and environmental impacts. Cryopreservation of gorgonian corals is an ex-situ method of conservation, ensuring future reproduction. The present study assessed the vitrification properties of cryoprotectant (CPT) mixtures using the cryotop, cryoloop and open pulled straw (OPS) cryopereservation methods prior to experimentation on gor...

An approach to organ cryopreservation, namely, vitrification has been review ed by FAHY et al.1). RALL and FAHY2) obtained some promissing results using 8-cell mouse embryos indicating the feasibility of obtaining high survival following rapid freezing by vitrification. However, there have been only a preliminary report2) on the feasibility of obtaining offspring by the vitrification method. Th...

Cryopreservation is a key technology in biology and clinical practice. This paper presents a digital microfluidic device that automates sample preparation for mammalian embryo vitrification. Individual micro droplets manipulated on the microfluidic device were used as micro-vessels to transport a single mouse embryo through a complete vitrification procedure. Advantages of this approach, compar...

Ovulated mouse oocytes denuded of their cumulus cells, were vitrified in a solution containing 7 M ethylene glycol as the sole cryoprotectant using one or two steps of exposure before vitrification and were diluted in 1 M sucrose solution in 5 or 10 min after warming. The results proved that the viability of oocytes are detrimentally affected by exposure to the vitrification solution even witho...

The vitrification of a liquid occurs when ice crystal formation is prevented in the cryogenic environment through ultrarapid cooling. In general, vitrification entails a large temperature difference between the liquid and its surrounding medium. In our droplet vitrification experiments, we observed that such vitrification events are accompanied by a Leidenfrost phenomenon, which impedes the hea...

Vitrifying oocytes is a potentially valuable means of preserving the female germ line, but significantly compromises oocyte developmental competence. This study examined the hypothesis that the cumulus complex protects the oocyte during vitrification. Vitrified-warmed immature cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) were labelled with a plasma membrane impermeant DNA marker (ethidium homodimer-1) to ex...

PURPOSE Our aim was to evaluate the effect of neat semen vitrification on human sperm vital parameters and DNA integrity in men with normal and abnormal sperm parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS Semen samples were 17 normozoospermic samples and 17 specimens with abnormal sperm parameters. Semen analysis was performed according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Then, the smear was pro...

The aim of this study was to develop a vitrification procedure for human ovarian tissue cryopreservation in order to better preserve the ovarian tissue. Large size samples of ovarian tissue retrieved from 15 female-to-male transgender subjects (18-38 years) were vitrified using two solutions (containing propylene glycol, ethylene glycol, and sucrose at different concentrations) in an open syste...