Comparison of 3 techniques for artificial shrinkage of blastocoelic cavity before vitrification of expanded mouse blastocysts / 中华男科学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish an effective pretreatment method for the vitrification of expanded mouse blastocysts by comparing 3 techniques for the artificial shrinkage of the blastocoelic cavity.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The blastocoelic cavity was artificially shrunk by micro-needle aspiration, pipetting or laser drilling prior to the vitrification of the expanded blastocysts. The rates of survival and hatching achieved with the three techniques were compared with those of the non-shrinkage group.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The rates of survival were 72.9, 72.0 and 94.0%, and those of hatching were 64.6, 32.0 and 62.0% in the three shrinkage groups, obviously higher than in the nonshrinkage group (40.0 and 16.0%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Artificial shrinkage of the blastocoelic cavity was an effective pretreatment technique for the vitrification of expanded mouse blastocysts, especially by micro-needle aspiration and laser drilling.</p>