What is vitrification?
The vitrification method, which is one of many cell freezing methods, has currently spread all over the world as the easiest-to-use and safest technique. It can cryopreserve oocytes and embryos for many years safely without significant deterioration theoretically. It has played an important role to “stop the time of oocytes and embryos until the precious day that would eventually come,” as a means of fertility preservation and treatment for sterility.
History of vitrification
- 1949
- Polge
- Successful cryopreservation for a chicken’s spermatozoa with glycerol--Discovery of cryoprotectant
- 1972
- Whittingham
- First successful cryopreservation of a mouse embryo by slow freezing
- 1977
- Willadsen
- Establishment of a simplified slow freezing method
- 1983
- Trounson
- First reported case of human pregnancy/delivery with a cryopreserved embryo
- 1985
- Rall,Fahy
- First successful embryo freezing by a vitrification method
- 1991
- Kuwayama
- Successful vitrification of a bovine embryo by the 16-step method
- 1999
- Kuwayama
- First successful vitrification of a human oocyte by the minimum volume cooling (MVC) technique
- 2000
- Kuwayama
- Establishment of Cryotop Method
- 2003, 2004
- Kuwayama
- First successful pregnancy/delivery with cryopreserved oocyte in the United States, South America, and Europe
- 2012
- Kuwayama
- Establishment of Cryotec Method
Mechanism of vitrification
As it is often said that approximately 60 % of the human body is made from water, cells contain plenty of water. Water is the only substance in nature for which the volume increases when it is solidified.