Vitrification of in vitro cultured rabbit morulae

In the present work, we attempt to establish an efficient vitrification procedure for 32-cell rabbit embryos obtained in vitro. In experiment 1, both the effect of the composition of the vitrification solutions and the cryoprotectant addition (either in one or two steps) were studied. For one-step addition, straws with embryos in the final vitrification solution (total time 60 s) were plunged into liquid nitrogen. For two-step addition, previously embryos were 2 min pre-equilibrated in 0.5 ml of (1:1) PBS plus 20% FCS: vitrification solution without sucrose. Different solutions of cryoprotectants were compared: 25 vol.% ethylene glycol supplemented with 0.25 M sucrose (25EG+S) and 20% ethylene glycol plus 20% dimethyl sulfoxide, alone (20EG+20DMSO−S) or supplemented with 0.25 M sucrose (20EG+20DMSO+S). Six percent (30/487) of the total of 32-cell embryos obtained by in vitro culture in each experimental session was slow-frozen by a classical method as a technical efficiency control. Only 30% slow-frozen embryos reached blastocyst stage. Significant differences in embryo development were detected between the one-step (25EG+S) and two-step (25EG+S) groups and the one-step (20EG−20DMSO+S) and two-step (20EG−20DMSO−S) groups (0–6% versus 36–50%, respectively). Consequently, in the following experiments only these two vitrification procedures were used. In experiment 2, we attempted to substitute the use of PBS by HEPES-buffered Ham’s F-10 (h-CM) in all cryoprotective solutions or media. When h-CM was used, a significant reduction in the in vitro embryo development was observed when the HEPES-buffered groups were compared with one-step (20EG−20DMSO+S) group in s-PBS (35–45% versus 73%). In experiment 3, the one-step (20EG+20DMSO+S) and two-step (20EG+20DMSO−S) procedures were assayed using two FCS levels (20 and 40%) in the PBS-based media. Relative to in vitro development, the highest rates were reached with one step (20EG−20DMSO+S), using PBS plus 20% FCS, which was different from two steps (20EG−20DMSO−S), regardless of percentage of FCS in the PBS-based media (81% versus 41–45%; P<0.05). In conclusion, we propose either the one step (20EG−20DMSO+S) or two steps (20EG−20DMSO−S) prepared in PBS plus 20% serum for use in future works.