Cryopreservation of oocytes and embryos: Optimization by theoretical versus empirical analysis

Embryos and oocytes were first successfully cryopreserved more than 30 years ago. This procedure has come to be an important, almost essential component in the practice of assisted reproduction in animals and humans. Literally millions of animals of more than 20 species and undoubtedly hundreds of t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Theriogenology 2008, Vol.69 (1), p.37-47
Main Author: Leibo, S.P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Cattle
Cryobiological theory
Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation - methods
Cryoprotective Agents
Empirical analysis
Female
Humans
Mice
Models, Biological
Oocytes
Oocytes/embryos
Pregnancy
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Embryos and oocytes were first successfully cryopreserved more than 30 years ago. This procedure has come to be an important, almost essential component in the practice of assisted reproduction in animals and humans. Literally millions of animals of more than 20 species and undoubtedly hundreds of thousands of children have been born from frozen embryos. Nevertheless, there still remain shortcomings with methods used to cryopreserve oocytes and embryos. A wide variety of approaches has been used to try to improve and optimize methods of cryopreservation. These approaches range from the very basic to the completely empirical. Some investigators make use of rigorous mathematical formulations to define and describe the behavior of oocytes and embryos at subzero temperatures. Others conduct “trial-and-error” studies to improve the results by dint of many replicate experiments in which they examine the effects of various protective compounds, macromolecular supplements, and compare different cooling and warming conditions. This review considers both extremes.
ISSN:0093-691X
1879-3231
DOI:10.1016/j.theriogenology.2007.10.006