The goal of cryopreservation is to retain the original stage of gametes and
embryos after they have endured cooling and warming. Slow freezing is a
standard method for in vivo-derived bovine embryo cryopreservation,
threefifths of such embryos being frozen by this method globally. However,
it is evident that slow freezing is not efficient for cryopreserving in
vitro-produced bovine embryos. Hence, only one-third of in vitro-produced
bovine embryos are cryopreserved. Vitrification is a preferred method for
storage of human embryos; consequently, it has been explored as a novel
means to store in vitro-produced bovine embryos, for which it shows
considerable promise as an alternative to slow freezing. This is due to
several reasons: vitrification is often less time-consuming than slow
freezing; it does not need expensive slow rate freezing machines; and it has
been proven to have comparatively higher survival rates. Yet, in the cattle
industry vitrification continues to present shortcomings, such as possible
toxicity of vitrification solutions and failure to standardize methods,
which pose a challenge for its application to in vitro-produced bovine
embryos. Therefore, determining the most suitable procedure is crucial to
make vitrification more practical in commercial settings.
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