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Cryopreservation of Mammalian Gametes and Embryos pp 141–159Cite as

Chapter 11 Human Embryo Vitrification

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1568))

Abstract

Cryopreservation is one of the keystones in clinical infertility treatment. In particular vitrification has become a well-established and widely used routine procedure that has allowed important expansion of therapeutic strategies when IVF is used to treat infertility. Vitrification of human blastocysts allows us to maximize the potential for conception from any single in vitro fertilization cycle and prevents wastage of embryos. The technology may even be used to eliminate fresh embryo transfers for reasons of convenience, uterine receptivity, fertility preservation, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or emergency management. In this chapter, the application of vitrification technology for cryopreserving human blastocysts will be revealed through step-by-step protocols. The results that are presented using the described protocols underscore the robustness of the vitrification technology for embryo cryopreservation.

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Acknowledgment

Juergen Liebermann wants to thank the Fertility Centers of Illinois (FCI) and the embryologists at the FCI IVF Laboratory River North (Elissa Pelts; BS, Jill Matthews; BS, Sara Sanchez; BS, Rebecca Brohammer; BS, Yuri Wagner; BS, and Ewelina Pawlowska, MS) for their invaluable contributions and support in pushing vitrification to become our standard protocol for cryopreservation of human oocytes and blastocysts within our program since 2004.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fertility Centers of Illinois, 900 N Kingsbury, RW 6, Chicago, IL, 60610, USA

    Juergen Liebermann PhD, HCLD

Authors
  1. Juergen Liebermann PhD, HCLD
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Correspondence to Juergen Liebermann PhD, HCLD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Reproductive Biology Associates, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Zsolt Peter Nagy

  2. ASTRA Fertility Group, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

    Alex C. Varghese

  3. Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

    Ashok Agarwal

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Liebermann, J. (2017). Chapter 11 Human Embryo Vitrification. In: Nagy, Z., Varghese, A., Agarwal, A. (eds) Cryopreservation of Mammalian Gametes and Embryos. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1568. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6828-2_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6828-2_11

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-6826-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-6828-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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