High survival of mouse embryos after rapid freezing and thawing inside plastic straws with 1-2 propanediol as cryoprotectant.
A method for obtaining a high survival rate of frozen-thawed mouse embryos is presented. Eight-cell mouse embryos were frozen inside small plastic straws in the presence of 1-2 propanediol and stored at -196 C. After thawing, the embryos were diluted for only 5 min in a 1.0 M sucrose solution to remove the 1-2 propanediol from the cells. At high rate of thawing (is equivalent to 2500 C/min) more than 88% of the embryos survived in vitro to the blastocyst stage provided that the dilution of propanediol was performed rapidly during thawing. At a lower rate of thawing (is equivalent to 300 C/min), survival tended to be higher (94.7%) when dilution was done 5 min after thawing. When the frozen-thawed embryos were transferred to the oviducts of day 1 pseudopregnant recipients either directly after the dilution of 1-2 propanediol or after 24 or 48 hr of culture, a high proportion of them (65.9%) develop normally to viable fetuses.
D000818:Animals; D003451:Cryoprotective Agents; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D005260:Female; D005615:Freezing; D051379:Mice; D011309:Preservation, Biological; D019946:Propylene Glycol; D011409:Propylene Glycols
D003451:Cryoprotective Agents; D011409:Propylene Glycols; D019946:Propylene Glycol