• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.141-144
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• 2005

This experiment was to investigate whether the mitochondria function assessment can be used for the prediction of sperm fertility through examining the correlation between mitochondria fluoromicroscopic frequency of frozen-thawed eight Hanwoo bull semen using rhodamine123 (R123) and in vitro embryo development following fertilization. Individual sperm were stained in 5 ${\mu}g/mL$ R123-added calcium-free Sp-TALP for 30 min at 0 h, 6 h, 12 h and 24 h after thawing and examined their mid-piece under an epifluorescence microscope using 495 nm excitation filter (x1,000). Three replications were taken, and at least 300 sperm per individual were examined. When semen samples were separated into two groups (good and poor) by sperm motility and fluorescent frequencies at just after thawing, average fluorescent frequencies were remarkably reduced as time going (0 h; $53.29{\~}72.94\%$, 6 h; $21.40{\~}58.90\%$, 12 h; $8.26{\~}25.93\%$, 24 h; $1.00{\~}13.78\%$, irrespective of selected group, and there were no differences at 6 h or 12 h after thawing between selected groups but indicated significant difference at 24 h after thawing (p<0.05). In vitro fertilization rates in good and poor groups ranging $70.8{\~}77.8\%$ and $52.1{\~}84.5\%$, respectively, were not significantly different. However, in vitro development rates of the same groups ranging $25.7{\~}40.0\%$ and $12.9{\~}1.8\%$, respectively, were significant different (p<0.05). These results demonstrate that mitochondria fluoromicroscopic assessment of frozen-thawed bovine sperm may be used as a criterion to select more fertile sperm.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2001

Objective: This study was to establish the human embryonic stem (ES) cells derived from frozen-thawed blastocyst stage embryo that were destined to be discarded after five years in routine human IVF-ET program. Methods: Frozen-thawed and survived human blastocysts were treated by immunosurgery, and recovered ICM cells were cultured onto STO feeder cell layer and ICM colony was subcultured by mechanical dissociation into clumps. To identify ES cell, alkaline phosphatase staining and expression of Oct4 in replated ICM colonies were examined. Also, to examine the possibility of ES cell differentiation, retinoic acid (RA), basic fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF), nerve growth factor (NGF) were added in culture medium. In addition, to classify the specific cell type, differentiated cells were stained by indirect immunocytochemistry. Results: One ICM colony recovered from frozen-thawed six blastocysts was subcultured, continuously replated during 40 passage culture duration without differentiation. Subcultured colonies were strong positively stained by alkaline phophatase. When the expression of Oct4 in cultured ES colony was examined, Oct4b type is more clearly indicated than Oct4a one although there was not detected in embryoid body or differentiated cells. In differentiated cardiomyocytes from ES colony, cells were beaten regularly (60 times/min). In differentiated neural cells from ES colony, neurofilament (NF) 200 kDa protein, microtubule associated protein (MAP) 2 and ${\beta}$-tubulin of specific marker in neurons, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) of specific marker in astrocytes and galactocelebrocide (GalC) of specific marker in oligodendrocytes were confirmed by indirect immunocytochemistry. Also, muscle cells were detected by indirect immunocytochemistry. In addition, ES colonies can be successfully cryopreserved. Conclusion: This study suggested that establishment of human ES cells can be successfully derived from frozen-thawed blastocysts that were destined to be discarded, and obtained specific cell types (cardiomyocytes, neurons and muscle cells) through the in vitro differentiation procedures of ES cells.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.35-40
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• 2006

This study was performed to investigate the effects of embryo developmental stage and superoxide dismutase (SOD) on the survival of frozen-thawed porcine embryos by open pulled straw(OPS) method. Porcine IVF blastocysts were frozen-thawed by OPS method and cultured for 48 h under the existence of SOD. There are no significant differences in the proportions of normal morphology among the early, mid- and expanded blastoryst stages $(30.8{\sim}38.6%)$. After culture of embryos, the developmental rates to the expanded blastocyst stage(38.7%) were significantly higher than those of other stages (P<0.05). The proportions of expanded and hatched embryos were higher in medium with 1 unit/ml SOD than 0 and 10 units/ml of SOD. The result indicates that OPS method can use for the pig embryo cryopreservation, especially for the late stage blastocysts. SOD may can reduce the demage of frozen-thawed porcine embryos.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2013

This study examined the motility of either the unattached(upper) or attached(lower) Hanwoo sperm to bovine oviduct epithelial cell(BOEC) monolayers to determine whether there are any changes in their motility during co-culture. The cleavage and blastocyst development rate were compared among different preincubation methods in-vitro, after oocytes were fertilized in-vitro with Hanwoo sperm on BOEC monolayers. The motility of frozen-thawed sperm in BOEC co-culture group was significantly higher than controls, especially at 5 hours and 6 hours (p<0.05) of incubation, in sperm treatment medium without heparin and caffeine. The motility of frozen-thawed sperm in BOEC co-culture group was significantly higher than controls, especially at 3 hours (p<0.05) and 6 hours (p<0.01), in sperm treatment medium containing heparin and caffeine. The motility of the attached( lower) sperm was significantly higher than the unattached(upper) sperm during co-culture with BOEC at all times(p<0.01 or p<0.05), except for 6 hours. After Hanwoo oocytes were fertilized in-vitro with the sperm that had been co-cultured with BOEC in sperm treatment medium containing heparin and caffeine, we determined the cleavage and blastocyst development rate, according to the preincubation methods. Both the cleavage and blastocyst development rate from 2 hour preincubation group were the highest, but significant difference was not recognized. These results show that BOEC plays an important role on sperm hyperactivation related to capacitation regardless of heparin and caffeine in sperm treatment medium. However, oviduct epithelial cell had no significant effect on the development of embryos after in-vitro fertilization in the presence of added heparin and caffeine in sperm treatment medium.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.217-224
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• 1992

These studies were carried out ot investigate on the transferred embryo development following ultrarapid frozen for 8-cell and morula of in vitro fertilization mouse embryos. The post-thaw embryo survival was evaluated and compared by cell stage of embryos and by equilibration time before ultrarapid freezing. The results obatined were summerized as follows: 1. The effects of equilibration time of 3 vs. 6 minutes before ultrarapid freezing and after thawing on the morphological survival and the viability of 8-cell and morulas embryos were not significant. 2. When the ultrarapid frozen-thawed 32 eight-cell and 33 morula embryos, and 30 fresh blastocysts were transferred to pseudopregnant recipient mice, the number of normal offsprings produced were 9(28.1%), 14(42.4%) and 18(60.0%), respectively. From the above resutls, it was concluded that the optimal conditions of pH osmolality of the media for mouse IVF and embryo culture, and the period of sperm preincubation might be 7.1, 310 mOsm and 120 min., respectively,a nd somewhat high conception rate might be resulted from transfer of frozen embryos of morula stage and fresh embryos of blastocyst stage.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.23-28
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• 2003

The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of PVP concentration and exposure temperature to vitrification solution on the post-thaw survival, in vitro maturation and development of immature bovine oocytes (germinal vesicle stage). The vitrification solution (VS) consisted of 40% ethylene glycol (EG)+0.5 M sucrose (S)+10% FBS. PVP was added to VS: 0%, 5% or 10%. The cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were diluted in VS as one step, after 2 min the COCs were loaded in straw and vitrified by direct immersion into liquid nitrogen. For thawing, the straws were plunged into $30^{\circ}C$ water bath for 10s. After thawing, the oocytes were diluted in 0.5 M (in DPBS with 10% FBS) sucrose solution for 5 min. The survival rate (FDA-test and trypan blue) of immature bovine oocytes was measured. The survival rate was higher in 5% PVP (91.5%) than in 0% (64.2%) or in 10% PVP (79.7%). The proportion of metaphase II formation was 69.35% in control (no vitrified COCs), 9.3% in 40% EG+0.5 M S+0% PVP and 21.05% in 40% EG+0.5 M S+5% PVP (p<0.05). The effect of room temperature ($25^{\circ}C$ for 10 min) and cold temperature ($4^{\circ}C$ for 10 min) on COCs were determined in this study. After IVF, the cleavage and blastocysts rate of oocytes exposed to room temperature and cold temperature in VS+5% PVP was significantly different (2 cell: 63.20% vs 37.97%, blastocysts: 18.40% vs 2.53%). The cleavage rates of frozen-thawed oocytes were 20.53% with PVP and 22.13% without PVP (p>0.05). Two out of 151 oocytes (1.32%) developed to blastocyst stage after frozen-thawed with 5% PVP (p>0.05). Development of oocytes after frozen-thawing to the 2 cell were not significantly affected with or without PVP following IVF. However, the vitrification of immature bovine oocytes with PVP maintained the ability to develop to the blastocyst stage after IVM-IVF and IVC, while no blastocysts were obtained from oocytes vitrified without PVP. These results suggested that PVP has a protective role for vitrification of immature bovine oocytes as far as survival is concerned, however, the protection was not sufficient enough to support blastocyst formation.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2014

This study was carried out to study the survival rate of thawed Hanwoo embryos frozen by the slow-rate freezing or the cryotop vitrification method. Hanwoo cumulus-oocyte complexes were recovered from ovaries at a slaughter house, matured for 20~22 hours, fertilized with Hanwoo semen for 5~6 hours, and cultured for 7~9 days in $38.5^{\circ}C$, 5% $CO_2$ incubator. For freezing, Day 7~9 blastocysts were collected. Embryos for the slow-rate freezing were equilibrated in 1.8 M ethylene glycol (EG) with Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline (D-PBS). Programmable cell freezer was precooled down to $-7^{\circ}C$, and the straw was seeded during 8 minutes-holding time, and was cooled to $-35^{\circ}C$ at the cooling rate of $0.3^{\circ}C/min$, and then was plunged and stored in liquid nitrogen. Embryos for the cryotop vitrification were treated in TCM199 with 0.5 M sucrose, 16% EG, 16% dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). Embryos were then loaded individually onto cryotop and plunged directly into liquid nitrogen. The survival rates of embryos frozen by these two freezing methods were evaluated at 12 to 24h post-thawing. The survival rates of frozen/thawed Hanwoo embryos by the cryotop vitrification method ($56.86{\pm}26.53%$) were slightly higher than those by the slow-rate freezing method ($55.07{\pm}26.43%$) with no significant difference. Using the cryotop vitrification and the slow-rate freezing of Hanwoo blastocysts on Day 7 following in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, the survival rates of frozen/thawed Hanwoo embryos were $72.65{\pm}18.3%$ and $79.06{\pm}17.8%$, respectively. The survival rates by the cryotop vitrification were higher than those by the slow-rate freezing on both Day 8 and 9 with significantly higher survival rate on Day 9 (p<0.05). Using the cryotop vitrification and the slow-rate freezing of Hanwoo embryos to compare between three different blastocyst stages, the survival rates of the blastocyst stage embryos were $66.22{\pm}18.8%$ and $45.76{\pm}12.8%$, respectively with higher survival rate by the vitrification method (p<0.05). And the survival rate of expanded blastocysts was higher than those of early blastocysts and blastocysts in two freezing methods with significantly higher survival rate by the slow-rate freezing method (p<0.05).

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.38-42
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• 1988

These studies were conducted to investigate the effect of repreated superovulation on embryo production, the effect of the frozen-thawed embryos transferred on the developmental stage and grade, and donor-recipient synchrony on pregnancy rate in Korean native cattle. The results obtained in these studies were as follows: 1. Repeated superovulations in Korean Native Catile were not affected on the number of corpus luteum (CL), embryos recovered and embryos cleaved (range: 4.8 $\pm$ 4.21 to 9.5 $\pm$ 6.50, 1.8 $\pm$ 2.53 to 8.2 $\pm$ 8.04 and 1.6 $\pm$ 2.32 to 4.0 $\pm$ 4.59, respectively). 2. Blastocyst embryos (38.5%) showed higher pregnancy rate than morula (31.6%). 3. The pregnancyrates of cattle transferred with good and fair embryos were 33.3% and 40.4%, respectively. 4. The pregnancy rate when the donors exhibited estrus 12 hours earlier than the recipients (62.5%) was higher than when the donors and recipients exhibited estrus at the same time (33.3%) or when the donors exhibited estrus 12 hours later than the recipients (20.0%).

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.201-207
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• 1993

We determined whether the ultrarapid freezing method is applicable to micromanipulated mouse embryos. One-cell mouse embryos were microinjected with MThGH gene. Nuclei from one-cell embryos of F1(C57BL$\times$CBA) mice were transplanted into enucleated one-cell embryos of ICR mice. The injected and nucleated embryos that developed to 2-cell stage were cryopreserved by ultrarapidfreezing. The embryos equilibrated in freezing medium(3 M DMSO＋0.25 M sucrose＋2% FBS in PBS) were directly immersed into liquid nitrogen and then thawed in 37$^{\circ}C$ water. Development rates of the microinjected and nuclear-transplanted embryos to blastocyst stage after ultrarapidly freezing and thawing were 31% and 55%, respectively. The frozen-thawed embryos were transferred to pseudopregnant recipient, which then gave birth to 17 offsprings. Twelve(14% of the transferred embryos) and five(20%) offsprings were derived from microinjected and nuclear-transplanted embryos, respectively. The results indicate that the DNA injected and nuclear-transplanted mouse embryos are cryopreservable at 2-cell stage by ultrarapid freezing method.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2005

This experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of saccharide in the lactose-egg yolk(LEY) extender for freezing of boar semen on the viability, normal acrosome, fertilizable of in vitro or in vivo oocyte after thawed. Normal acrosome post-thawed spermatozoa was higher when increasing of glucose concentration in LEY extender with 3 or $4\%$ glycerol, but viability was not significant. Viability of the post-thawed spermatozoa was higher when fructose or fructose and glucose were added to LEY extender with $3\%$ glycerol than glucose and sucrose or fructose, glucose and sucrose(P<0.05). Rate of normal acrosome of post thawed spermatozoa was higher when both fructose and glucose$(81.4{\pm}2.3\%)$ were added to the LEY extender than saccharide not added$(41.6\pm0.6\%)$ to it(P<0.001). The percentage of fertilization, cleavage and development to blastocyst of oocytes fertilized with post-thawed spermatozoa from freezing by LEY extender were $70.8\~80.7\%$, $44.6\~45.7$ and $13.6\~16.0\%$, respectively. Conception rate by artificial insemination with frozen boa. semen was higher$(83.1{\pm}0.3\%)$ than commercial frozen semen from SGI company$(50.0{\pm}0.1\%,\;P<0.05)$, but litter size were no significant differences between frozen by LEY extender$(9.4{\pm}1.7\~10.4{\pm}0.7head/sow)$ and SGI semen$(8.0{\pm}1.1 head/sow)$.