Effect of different penetrating and non-penetrating cryoprotectants and media temperature on the cryosurvival of vitrified in vitro produced porcine blastocysts.

The aim of this study was to determine the most efficient vitrification protocol for the cryopreservation of day 7 in vitro produced (IVP) porcine blastocysts. The post-warm survival rate of blastocysts vitrified in control (17% dimethyl sulfoxide + 17% ethylene glycol [EG] + 0.4 mol/L sucrose) and commercial media did not differ, nor did the post-warm survival rate of blastocysts vitrified in medium containing 1,2-propandiol in place of EG.

A comparison of different vitrification devices and the effect of blastocoele collapse on the cryosurvival of in vitro produced porcine embryos.

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 CryoLoop(TM) system, or vitrified in a closed device using either the CryoTip(TM) or Cryo Bio(TM)'s high security vitrification system (HSV).