CFCM

Embryo cryopreservation

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Contact person

Ivana Benzoni

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Embryo freezing allows murine lines preservation, protects mice from contaminations in the animal house and lab accidents. Moreover, it allows conservation of murine lines not necessary for current studies. The consequence is the saving of precious space in the animal house and cage costs.

Procedure

Superovulated wild type females are mated with mutated males. Embryos are recovered at 0.5 dpc and frozen in straws.

30 zygotes are frozen into a straw for a maximum of 300 embryos starting from heterozygous males and 150 from homozygous males.

After embryos freezing, two quality tests are available to the user:

  • in vitro test to verify whether embryos from a thawed straw reach the 2-cells stage of development;
  • in vivo test where, thawed embryos, are transplanted into a foster mother.

What CFCM staff needs:

  • 10 proven breeder males heterozygous or homozygous for the mutation (2-4 months old).
  • A statistic on the pups number produced routinely by breeding pairs.