Objective:

To demonstrate the efficacy of a short exposure to equilibration vitrification solutions and a single 1-minute thaw in to the one molar sucrose thaw solution without compromising viability of the embryo post that.

Materials & Methods:

Phase I of the study was a single embryos vitrified in a one minute exposure to equilibration solution (ES), 7.5% ethylene glycol (EG) and 7.5% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solution followed by a one minute exposure to vitrification solution (VS) 15% EG/15% DMSO solution with 0.5M Sucrose. Phase II warming was to thaw the embryo in a single step of 1 molar sucrose solution, thaw solution (TS), and move to a washing solution (WS). The embryo was vitrified and  hawed following the described method 1 minute ES, 1 minute VS for freezing. Warming was 1 minute TS and 3 minutes WS before performing the freeze again.

Results:

A single embryo was frozen and warmed over 10 complete cycles while maintaining viability over the multiple freeze warming cycles.


Conclusions:

A typical vitrification procedure takes up to 20 to 30 minutes. The typical warming protocol takes 20 to 30 minutes each. With this shortened protocol the time saved over 1000 freeze and 1000 warming cycles per year is over 600 hours of time saved in the laboratory time over the year.

We are in a time when we need to think again about how we perform our laboratory procedures and determine if we can shorten the times and the observations in the laboratory to increase the time to perform more procedures safely with less stress on the laboratory staff.