Genética Humana e Embriologia

Evaluation of a New Vitrification Protocol for Oocyte Cryopreservation

Abstract

Maria Panagopoulou, Konstantinos Charalabopoulos, Demetrios N. Papachristou, Elias Tsakos and Byron Asimakopoulos

During the last years, vitrification was introduced into clinical practice. Although vitrification counts several years of experimental studies, this method is still under development. In this study, a new vitrification protocol was evaluated. Materials and methods: An experimental study conducted in a University laboratory evaluated a new, short vitrification protocol including two vitrification and two thawing solutions, made in-house. The vitrification solutions contained dimethyl sulfoxide, ethylenoglycol and human serum albumin. The thawing solutions contained sucrose and human serum albumin. Rat oocytes, allocated in two groups, were used. In the control group, the oocytes were vitrified using a standard protocol. In the experimental group, the oocytes were vitrified using the new protocol. The endpoint was the survival rate of the oocytes just after thawing and 48 hours later. Results: The survival rate just after thawing was similar in the two groups (62.5% for the control group and 60% for the experimental group, p=0.18). However after 48 hour incubation, there was a significant difference between the two groups: 55% survival for the control group and 45% for the experimental group (p=0.008). Conclusion: The two vitrification protocols achieved similar survival rates just after thawing. However, after 48 hours incubation of thawed oocytes, the standard method had higher survival rates, than the in-house one.