Effect of Sucrose Concentration on Survival After Frozen-thawed of Bovine IVF Blastocysts in Ethylene Glycol Based Freezing Medium for Slow-Cooling

The present study was undertaken to investigate the post-thawed survivability of bovine embryo depending on different dose of ethylene glycol and sucrose. Ovaries were collected at local slaughterhouse and the cumulus-oocyte-complexes aspirated from ovaries were in vitro matured, fertilized and cultured at 39°C in an atmosphere of 5% CO2 incubator. For conventional slow-freezing, d 7 or 8 expanded blastocysts were collected. Embryos were equilibrated in 1.5 M and 1.8 M ethylene glycol(EG) with 0.1 M and 0.3 M sucrose in Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline(D-PBS) supplemented with 0.5% bovine serum albumin. Embryos were then loaded individually into 0.25ml-straw and placed directly into cooling chamber of programmable freezer precooled to 󰠏7°C, after 2 min, the straw was seeded, maintained at 󰠏7°C for 8 min, and then cooled to 󰠏35°C at 0.3°C/min, plunged and stored in liquid nitrogen for at least 3 days. For thawing, the straw containing embryos were warmed in air for 10 sec and exposed to 37°C water for 20 sec. Straws were then removed from 37°C water. Rates of blastocyst survive and hatching were evaluated at 24 to 72 h post-warming. No difference of the survivability was shown between 1.5 M and 1.8 M EG (71 and 70%, respectively). Addition of 0.1 M sucrose to 1.5 M and 1.8 M ethylene glycol in the freezing solution did not differ significantly embryo survival (74 and 77%, respectively), whereas survival rates was higher(89%) in freezing solution contained 0.3M sucrose to 1.8M EG compared with 0.3M sucrose to 1.5M EG group(71%). However, there was no difference in the overall total cell number between the two groups (122±1.8 vs 131±1.4, respectively). In conclusion, the results suggest that 0.3 M sucrose in 1.8 M EG may be optimal condition for freezing and thawing methods with in vitro produced embryos and may be applied to on-farm conditions for embryo transfer.

소 체외수정란의 Slow Freezing을 위해서 Ethylene Glycol 동결보호제에 Sucrose 첨가 농도에 의한 동결효율

본 연구에서는 동결 보호제 EG l에 sucrose 첨가 농도에 따른 생존성의 실험의 결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 1.5 M EG와 1.8 M EG 만을 이용하여 동결융해 후 생존서의 조사한 결과 71.1%와 70.2%로 각각 나타났다. 총세포수에 있어서도 127±1.3개와 124±1.6개로 생존율과 총세포수에 있어서도 두 그룹간에는 유의적인 차이를 보이지 않았다. 1.5 M EG와 1.8 M EG에 0.1 M sucrose를 각각 첨가한 후 동결 보존하여 융해 하였을 때 생존율과 총세포수 조사 결과는 1.5 M EG에 0.1 M sucrose 처리구가 73.6% 그리고 1.8 M EG 에 0.1 M sucrose 첨가군은 76.9%의 결과를 보였으며 총세포수 에 있어서도 118±1.2 와 112±1.2 개의 결과를 보여 생존성과 총세포수에 있어서도 두 처리군 모두 유의적인 차이를 나타내지 않았으나 1.5 M EG 처리구에서 총세포수는 다소 높은 경향을 보였다. 1.5 M EG 와 1.8 M EG에 0.3 M sucrose를 첨가하여 각각 생존성과 총세포수 조사 결과는 70.8%와 88.7%의 생존율을 나타내어 1.8 M EG 에 0.3 M sucrose 처리구가 유의적으로(P<0.05) 높은 결과를 보였다. 따라서 소 체외수정란을 conventional slow-freezing 방법으로 동결 보존할 경우는 1.8 M EG 동결보호제에 0.3 M sucrose를 병행하여 사용하는 방법이 수정란을 최상의 상태로 유지할 수가 있어 수정란이식에 적용할 경우 효과적일 것으로 사료된다.