Skip to main content

Quick Tips for Perfect Vitrification

Quick Tips to Vitrification  

Cryopreservation of oocytes or embryos is a critical step in maximizing the efficiency of any IVF cycle. To achieve clinical success with cryopreservation is highly variable from laboratory to laboratory, and may depend on many factors including patient age and stimulation protocol, quality of embryos selected for freezing, developmental stage at freezing, media formulation including type of method used, parameters of cooling and warming. 

All through our time in and outside of the laboratory, during discussions, we have heard vitrification is so difficult. Believe us, vitrification, is not difficult. Having said this, yes, we agree that there are certain critical steps you need to focus on and keep in mind and the rest just follows through.

Principle:

Vitrification can be defined as an extreme elevation in viscosity, i.e. solidification of solutions without ice crystal formation at low temperature. This phenomenon can be induced by either applying an extreme cooling rate or by using high concentrations of cryoprotectant solutions. Although human embryo and oocyte vitrification was slow to evolve, it has become an invaluable technology in the field of reproductive medicine.

Tip no 1 - The ratio of freezing:

If you have not yet noticed, it is important to notice the difference in size as the egg becomes an embryo and an embryo becomes a blastocyst. As the transition takes place the size keeps increasing and thus we use different sized denupets to handle each of these. However, at the same time, it is important to remember that the size of the device (cryotop/cryolock or cryo-loop) does not change. Thus, this means, as the size goes up we need to reduce the number we freeze on 1 device.

Tip 2 – Media left on the device:

The number of oocytes/embryos loaded on the device is also associated with addition of more media. The technique of vitrification demands leaving as less amount of media as possible surrounding the oocytes/embryos.

Tip 3 – Start with Day 3, Day5 and then oocyte

The principle of vitrification demands, removing maximum water content from the oocytes/embryos. We may not be able to see this lysis until we thaw, and hence it is necessary to observe the same while vitrifying. Oocytes have the highest water content followed by blastocyst and then Day 3.

Tip 4 – Immediate immersion in Liquid nitrogen

As suggested earlier, it is important to adhere to the protocol stringently. Thus as per each protocol, you will get approximately 60 seconds to load the material on the device. Once this step is done, you have to ensure device either open or close has to be immediately dipped in liquid nitrogen.

Tip 5 – Document your observations:

Along with following the timeline and technique of vitrifying, it is extremely important to document your observations of the process. For e.g.; if you took more than usual time to load the oocytes/embryos or the shrinkage did not happen and the reason you think could cause it. These may not be important at the time of vitrifying, storing but extremely important to analyse if the oocyte/embryo does not survive.

If you are beginning your training in vitrification, then all the above mentioned points are applicable. If you have been performing vitrification for a long time, this could serve as a checklist for you to see if you have not missed any of the above. We are sure adopting the above mentioned tips will bring a positive change in your technique and its outcome.  

 

Labels:
Location: Vadodara, Gujarat, India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Sleep Matters And How It Can Affect Your Fertility

It is not alien knowledge for any of us that sleep is a crucial function for the overall well-being of our mental, physical, and emotional health. Too much and too little sleep can have significant negative impacts on the overall health of your body.  Sleep helps in the restoration and strengthening of the body from the day’s activities. Thus, not getting adequate sleep can be detrimental not only for your mental and physical health but for your fertility health as well.  Just like the sun and moon cycle that follows a 24-hour routine, research shows that your body functions, too, follow a similar 24-hour pattern through the sleep and wake cycle. The body produces and regulates the secretion of crucial hormones during sleep. Though in most cases, maintaining a healthy sleep cycle can be done easily, some people face difficulties in sleeping due to other underlying reasons, which need to be corrected first to get good sleep. Disturbances in your sleep cycle can impact several e...
6 comments
Read more

Top 5 Myths About IVF That You Need To Know About

IVF, or in vitro fertilization, is becoming increasingly popular among couples who cannot conceive naturally, despite having tried for months or even years together. Advanced reproductive treatments and techniques have shown remarkable progress in the last 40 years.   There is still a lot of misleading information regarding IVF and IVF-related treatments out there, leaving couples in a fix whether to opt for the treatment or not. In this article, we aim to bust those myths regarding IVF treatments and help you make more informed decisions using facts and truths only. Top Myths You Need To Know About IVF           I.     There Is Nothing Natural About IVF IVF is a procedure that tries to expedite or make successful a process that happens naturally in humans. For babies to happen naturally, the sperm needs to successfully fertilize the egg. In IVF too, this fertilization of the egg by the sperm happens, where the only di...
10 comments
Read more

Know Your Embryologist

  Let me introduce you to people known as embryologists . In layman terms, they are simply those who make babies in the lab. Early in my career, there was an incident related to work that I will never forget. My dad was out for his evening walk when I ran to catch up with him. He proudly introduced me to a bunch of his senior-citizen friends, “This is my daughter and she makes babies!” I could feel all the old hearts there do a somersault. I was red with embarrassment. “Make babies for other people in a lab with the help of IVF,” I corrected him. My dad laughed, patted my back and said, “Yes, it is the same thing.” In my mind, to prevent such an incident from reoccurring, I vowed to give my dad a few lessons on the essentials of being an embryologist. At the clinic, we are required to change into scrubs before we enter the lab in order to minimize the entry of dust and microorganisms. Scrubs are commonly worn by doctors, nurses, and medical students when at work. They are designed ...
Post a Comment
Read more