Cryopreservation is used for blastocyst preservation of most mammalian embryos and is an important technique for breeding. We aimed to compare the efficiency of the cryopreservation method using the standard Cryotop device and the ReproCarrier device, a domestic product manufactured in Korea. The efficacy of the two devices was analyzed based on the survival rate, intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and apoptosis of the vitrified bovine blastocysts. The survival rates of the vitrified-warmed blastocysts were similar between the ReproCarrier group (58.4 ± 17.7%) and Cryotop group (59.9 ± 14.1%). Intracellular ROS levels and apoptotic index were determined by DCFDA staining and TUNEL assay. Changes in intracellular ROS levels, number of total nuclei, and cellular apoptosis of vitrified blastocysts after cryopreservation were not significantly different between the two groups. These results indicate that the ReproCarrier device method is as effective as the standard Cryotop method for vitrification of bovine blastocysts in vitro.

This study was carried out to study the survival rate of thawed Hanwoo embryos frozen by the slow-rate freezing or the cryotop vitrification method. Hanwoo cumulus-oocyte complexes were recovered from ovaries at a slaughter house, matured for 20~22 hours, fertilized with Hanwoo semen for 5~6 hours, and cultured for 7~9 days in 38.5℃, 5% CO2 incubator. For freezing, Day 7∼9 blastocysts were collected. Embryos for the slow-rate freezing were equilibrated in 1.8 M ethylene glycol (EG) with Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline (D-PBS). Programmable cell freezer was precooled down to —7℃, and the straw was seeded during 8 minutes-holding time, and was cooled to —35℃ at the cooling rate of 0.3℃/min, and then was plunged and stored in liquid nitrogen. Embryos for the cryotop vitrification were treated in TCM199 with 0.5 M sucrose, 16% EG, 16% dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). Embryos were then loaded individually onto cryotop and plunged directly into liquid nitrogen. The survival rates of embryos frozen by these two freezing methods were evaluated at 12 to 24h post-thawing. The survival rates of frozen/thawed Hanwoo embryos by the cryotop vitrification method (56.86 ± 26.53%) were slightly higher than those by the slow-rate freezing method (55.07 ± 26.43%) with no significant difference. Using the cryotop vitrification and the slow-rate freezing of Hanwoo blastocysts on Day 7 following in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, the survival rates of frozen/thawed Hanwoo embryos were 72.65 ± 18.3% and 79.06 ± 17.8%, respectively. The survival rates by the cryotop vitrification were higher than those by the slow-rate freezing on both Day 8 and 9 with significantly higher survival rate on Day 9 (p<0.05). Using the cryotop vitrification and the slow-rate freezing of Hanwoo embryos to compare between three different blastocyst stages, the survival rates of the blastocyst stage embryos were 66.22 ± 18.8% and 45.76 ± 12.8%, respectively with higher survival rate by the vitrification method (p<0.05). And the survival rate of expanded blastocysts was higher than those of early blastocysts and blastocysts in two freezing methods with significantly higher survival rate by the slow-rate freezing method (p<0.05).

Freezing of bovine blastocysts has been proposed as a tool to improve the feasibility of cattle production by using embryo transfer technique. However, the low efficiency of frozen-thawed embryos survival and further development is a crucial problem. Thus, we examined the effect of artificial shrinkage before vitrification of bovine expanded, hatched and SCNT embryos on the survival rate, apoptosis index and further development after thawing. Expanded, hatched and SCNT embryos were vitrified after artificial shrinkage, which was performed by puncturing the blastocoele with a pulled pasteur pipet. Artificial shrinkage of the blastocyst was achieved after pushing a pulled pasteur pipet into the blastocoele cavity until it contracted. The shrunken and not shrunken embryos were exposed to cryoprotectant solution in 7.5% ethylene glycol-7.5% DMSOPBS with 20% FBS for 5 min. They were placed in a small volume of vitrification solution (15% ethylene glycol+15% DMSO+PBS+20% FBS+0.5 M sucrose) and plunged into liquid nitrogen on a cryotop. Then, after thawing, cryoprotectant was diluted in 1.0 M, 0.5 M, 0.25 M, and 0 M sucrose for 1, 3, 5, and 5 min. Under the optimal conditions, overall efficiency of the survival rate of bovine expanded, hatched, SCNT embryos in artificial shrinkage groups was higher compared with non-artificial shrinkage groups (p< 0.05). Especially, the numbers of TUNEL-positive nuclei in artificial shrinkage groups were significantly reduced than those of non-artificial shrinkage groups among frozen-thawed expanded, hatched, and SCNT blastocysts (p< 0.05). Our results showed that survival rates in cryopreserved expanded, hatched, SCNT embryos could be improved by reducing the fluid content. Therefore, we suggest that artificial shrinkage method is a effective pretreatment technique for the cryotop vitrification of expanded, hatched, SCNT bovine blastocysts.