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Vitrification of Oocytes: From Basic Science to Clinical Application

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Oocyte Biology in Fertility Preservation

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 761))

Abstract

Vitrification is a physical process by which a liquid is transformed into a solid of amorphous glass form. It was only at the end of the nineteenth century (1898) that Gustav Heinrich Johann Apollon Tammann pointed out that a large number of substances can be obtained as glasses and suggested that this property might be universal (Tammann, Zeitschrift for Physikalische Chemie; 25: 441–479, 1898). Basically, vitrification is the supercooling of a liquid to a temperature at which the viscosity is so high that it can be defined as being at a solid state. The understanding of the vitrification process has been deepened over the years and has been applied for cryopreservation and currently is the method of choice for preserving oocytes and embryos.

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Acknowledgment

I would like to thank Prof. Kui Liu for his suggestions and critical reading of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. FertileSafe, Shlomzion Hamalca 59/5, Tel Aviv, 62266, Israel

    Amir Arav D.V.M, Ph.D. & Yehudit Natan M.Sc.

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  1. Amir Arav D.V.M, Ph.D.
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  2. Yehudit Natan M.Sc.
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Correspondence to Amir Arav D.V.M, Ph.D. .

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  1. University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, USA

    S. Samuel Kim

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Arav, A., Natan, Y. (2013). Vitrification of Oocytes: From Basic Science to Clinical Application. In: Kim, S. (eds) Oocyte Biology in Fertility Preservation. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 761. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8214-7_6

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