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Clinical evaluation of two formulations of slow-freezing solutions for cleavage stage embryos

  • Embryo Biology
  • Published:
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The aim was to investigate if improved survival rates could be achieved using a new formulation of solutions for slow freezing of human cleavage stage embryos.

Methods

The evaluation was divided into two parts. The first part was a retrospective analysis of results obtained after freezing and thawing of day 3 embryos from 400 women using an old formulation of cryopreservation solutions compared to results from 108 women for which cryopreservation had been performed using new compositions of solutions. The second part was prospective, adding cycles until similar numbers of patients had been included in both groups. In total, 2274 embryos from 897 patients were thawed using the old formulation of solutions while 1273 embryos from 542 patients were frozen and thawed using the new solutions. The primary endpoint was survival rate.

Results

With the new solutions, the survival rate increased from 82.1 to 94.4 % and the complete embryo survival rate increased from 54.9 to 81.3 %. The implantation rate, clinical pregnancy rate per embryo transfer, and per cycle were 28.2, 45.2, and 43.7 %, respectively, using the old formulations of cryosolutions. With the new solutions, the results reached 33.7, 54.1, and 54.1 %, respectively. All differences in results were statistically significant. The number of cancelled embryo transfers due to no survived embryos was 18 with the old solutions and 0 using the new solutions.

Conclusion

With the new composition of solutions for slow freezing and thawing of embryos, significantly improved results were obtained. Additionally, the number of cancelled embryo transfers was reduced.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Reproductive Endocrinology, Women’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China

    Li Fang, Liang Jin, Enshu Li, Long Cui & Yinghui Ye

Authors
  1. Li Fang
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  2. Liang Jin
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  3. Enshu Li
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  4. Long Cui
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  5. Yinghui Ye
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yinghui Ye.

Ethics declarations

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Funding

This study was funded by China Natural Science Fundation (Grant No.81370761) and China National Key Technology Support Program (Grant No. N20120266-04).

Additional information

Capsule

With the new composition of solutions for slow freezing and thawing of embryos, significantly improved results were obtained. Additionally, the number of cancelled embryo transfers was reduced.

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Fang, L., Jin, L., Li, E. et al. Clinical evaluation of two formulations of slow-freezing solutions for cleavage stage embryos. J Assist Reprod Genet 33, 1389–1393 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-016-0778-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-016-0778-1

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