A. Massip et al., MORPHOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY OF IN-VITRO PRODUCED BOVINE EMBRYOS - IMPLICATIONS FOR THEIR CRYOPRESERVATION, Human reproduction, 10(11), 1995, pp. 3004-3011
Examination of some ultrastructural and physiological characteristics
of in-vitro produced bovine embryos may help to explain why such embry
os are more sensitive to freezing than their in-vivo derived counterpa
rts. Improvement of embryo survival after freezing can be achieved by
changing the conditions of their culture, selection of embryos based o
n the kinetics of their development, and changing 'standard' freezing
procedures, Cryopreservation of embryos by vitrification, in particula
r, seems to yield higher survival than conventional slow freezing. Fur
ther development of protocols requires additional embryo transfer stud
ies to ensure that the ability of thawed embryos to develop normally i
n vivo correlates strongly with in-vitro survival assays.