A comparison of different vitrification devices and the effect of blastocoele collapse on the
cryosurvival of in vitro produced porcine embryos |
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Authors: | Louise Katherine BARTOLAC Jenna Louise LOWE George KOUSTAS Cecilia SJ?BLOM Christopher Gerald GRUPEN |
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Institution: | 1)Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, NSW 2570, Australia;2)Westmead Fertility Centre, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia |
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Abstract: | The aim of this study was to determine the optimum conditions for vitrifying in vitro
produced day 7 porcine embryos using different vitrification devices and blastocoele collapse methods. Firstly
embryos were collapsed by micro-pipetting, needle puncture and sucrose with and without conducting
vitrification. In the next experiment, non-collapsed embryos were vitrified in an open device using either
superfine open-pulled straws (SOPS) or the CryoLoopTM system, or vitrified in a closed device using
either the CryoTipTM or Cryo BioTM’s high security vitrification system (HSV). The
post-thaw survival of embryos vitrified in the open devices did not differ significantly (SOPS: 37.3%;
CryoLoopTM: 37.3%) nor did the post-thaw survival of embryos vitrified in the closed devices
(CryoTip™: 38.5%; HSV: 42.5%). The re-expansion rate of embryos that were collapsed via micro-pipetting
(76.0%) did not differ from those that were punctured (75.0%) or collapsed via sucrose (79.6%) when
vitrification was not performed. However, embryos collapsed via sucrose solutions (24.5%) and needle puncture
(16.0%) prior to vitrification were significantly less likely to survive vitrification than the control
(non-collapsed) embryos (53.6%, P < 0.05). The findings show that both open and closed vitrification
devices were equally effective for the vitrification of porcine blastocysts. Collapsing blastocysts prior to
vitrification did not improve survival, which is inconsistent with the findings of studies in other species.
This may be due to the extremely sensitive nature of porcine embryos, and/or the invasiveness of the
collapsing procedures. |
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Keywords: | Blastocoele collapse Porcine embryo Vitrification Vitrification device |
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