In vitro cryopreservation of human gametes is one of the basic methods of infertility treatment. In particular, human embryo vitrification is an accepted and widely used routine procedure that has greatly expanded therapeutic strategies when using IVF to treat infertility.
By allowing further selection of embryos, human embryo vitrification increases the likelihood of conception during a single IVF cycle and prevents embryo loss. This technology can even be used to exclude fresh embryo transfer for convenience, fertility preservation, uterine sensitivity, pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT), or emergency care. So, let’s briefly discuss a cryopreservation method of human embryo vitrification.
Routine blastocyst culture and in vitro cryopreservation have been shown to rapidly increase pregnancy rates, thereby improving human embryo selection. Thanks to more reliable cryopreservation methods like “vitrification”, fewer human embryos are now being transferred, resulting in fewer high-order multiple pregnancies, as well as an increase in the number of healthy implantations, therefore getting pregnant quickly.
While the former slow freezing cryopreservation method can lead to crystallization of water and therefore can cause new and unwanted physical and chemical phenomena damaging stored cells, the most modern method of vitrification freezing completely prevents ice formation during the cooling process. It creates a glassy or vitreous state in which molecular translational movements are limited without restructuring of the liquid.
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The only known “disadvantage” of embryo vitrification, embryologists unfamiliar with embryo vitrification refer to, is the use of higher concentrations of cryoprotectants, which potentially are more toxic than solutions used for conventional slow freezing. But in fact, there is no evidence that the use of relatively higher concentrations of cryoprotectants in embryo vitrification adversely affects both pregnancy and perinatal outcome.
Vitrification at the blastocyst stage provides for excellent rates of survival, implantation and clinical pregnancy. To achieve these results, the key points are: (a) availability of a successful clinical human blastocyst vitrification storage program; (b) availability of human blastocyst with a greater number of cells, having a greater tolerance for cryoinjury; (c) smaller cells to accelerate cryoprotectant penetration.