Study on the Vitrification of Human Blastocysts I. Effect of Cryo-Solution and Development Stage on the Survival Rate of Vitrified Blastocysts
This study was conducted to investigate the effects of vitrification solution and developmental stage on the survival rate of vitrified-thawed human blastocyst embryos. Human blastocyst embryos were cryopreserved by vitrification using EFS and GE solution, and their survival rates were examined after thawing and further culture. EFS solution was consisted of 40% ethylene glycol, 18% Ficoll 70 and 0.3M sucrose. GE solution was consisted of 25% glycerol and 25% ethylene glycol. Embryos were exposed to EFS and GE solution by 2 steps and 3 steps, respectively, and plunged into liquid nitrogen after loading into 0.25ml plastic straws. Blastocysts were classified into 4 groups in accordance with their developmental stage: into 1) EEB, 2) MEB and 3) EdB, of blastocysts developed on day 5, and 4) 6d-Bla(the blastocysts which formed on day 6). The blastocysts at each stage were vitrified by GE solution and cryopreserved in LN2. After thawing them, we examined their survival rates, respectively. The resulted of this study were as follows: 1. The survival rate of blastocysts vitrified by GE solution was 64.4%, significantly higher than that (5.7%) vitrified by EFS solution (P<0.001). 2. When the blastocysts were vitrified by GE solution according to each developmental stage, the survival rates of EEB, MEB, EdB and 6d-Bla were 65.9%, 65.9%, 73.2% and 58.1%, respectively. In conclusion, the cryopreservation of human blastocysts by vitrification is likely to have a marked advantage in terms of cost, work and time as compared to the conventional slow freezing in IVF-ET programs.