Skip Navigation


Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on July 29, 2005
Human Reproduction 2005 20(12):3385-3389; doi:10.1093/humrep/dei236
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF ) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
20/12/3385    most recent
dei236v1
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (15)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ghetler, Y.
Right arrow Articles by Arav, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ghetler, Y.
Right arrow Articles by Arav, A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

The effect of chilling on membrane lipid phase transition in human oocytes and zygotes

Yehudith Ghetler1,2,*, Saar Yavin3,*, Ruth Shalgi1 and Amir Arav3,4

1 Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, 2 IVF Unit and Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, Meir Hospital, Sapir Medical Centre, Kfar Saba 44281 and 3 Institute of Animal Science, Volcani Centre, POB 6, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel * These authors contributed equally to this work

4 To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: arav{at}agri.huji.ac.il

BACKGROUND: Chilling injury occurs when the cell membrane undergoes a transition from the liquid state to the gel state. Human oocytes and single-cell zygotes are of similar shape and size but the post-thawing survival rate of oocytes is poorer. We set out to investigate the possible difference in membrane lipid phase transition (LPT) temperature between the two cell types. METHODS: The LPT temperature was measured with a Fourier Transform Infrared analyser, which detects the change in the vibration frequency of the CH2 bond stretches of the membrane lipid molecules during temperature change. The LPT temperatures of unfertilized human oocytes, in vitro-matured oocytes, and immature germinal vesicle (GV) stage oocytes were compared with that of abnormally fertilized human zygotes. RESULTS: The LPT temperatures of zygotes and of mature and immature GV oocytes differ significantly from each other (10.0 ± 1.2, 16.9 ± 0.9 and 24.4 ± 1.6°C respectively; P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Zygotes show a higher resistance to chilling injury compared to oocytes at different developmental stages; this might explain the relatively poor survival rates of cryopreserved human oocytes and indicates the necessity to adjust the cryopreservation protocols in order to minimize cryoinjury.

Key words: chilling injury/cryopreservation/human oocyte/human zygote/lipid phase transition


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Hum ReprodHome page
S. Yavin, A. Aroyo, Z. Roth, and A. Arav
Embryo cryopreservation in the presence of low concentration of vitrification solution with sealed pulled straws in liquid nitrogen slush
Hum. Reprod., April 1, 2009; 24(4): 797 - 804.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Hum Reprod UpdateHome page
J. Donnez, B. Martinez-Madrid, P. Jadoul, A. Van Langendonckt, D. Demylle, and M.-M. Dolmans
Ovarian tissue cryopreservation and transplantation: a review
Hum. Reprod. Update, September 1, 2006; 12(5): 519 - 535.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.