Production of monozygotic twins after freezing and thawing of bisected mouse embryos

Abstract

We examined the viability of mouse bisected embryos after freezing and thawing and produced monozygotic twin mice from these embryos. Two-cell embryos were collected from superovulated mature agouti, F1 hybrid (C57BL/6 x CBA) female mice. For bisection, one blastomere of the embryo was aspirated with a micropipette and injected into an empty zona pellucida. After culture for 24 to 28 h to the compacted 4- to 8-cell stage or 48 to 52 h to the late morula to blastocyst stage, the embryos were slowly frozen (-0.5 to -1.0 degrees C/min), thawed (30 degrees C/min), cultured for 24 h, and then transferred to recipient females. The bisected embryos without zonae pellucidae had developmental ability in vitro similar to those with zonae pellucidae (88% vs 89%). However, after freezing and thawing at the compacted 4- to 8-cell stage, bisected embryos with zonae pellucidae had higher viability than those without (60% vs 15%). Zona enclosed, bisected embryos frozen at the compacted 4- to 8-cell stage were more resistnat to freezing and thawing than those at the late morula to blastocyte stage (60% vs 23%). After transfer to recipients 26% of the zona enclosed bisected embryos frozen-thawed at the 4- to 8-cell stage developed to living fetuses a day 17.5 to 18.0 of pregnancy, which was slightly but not significantly lower than that of fresh bisected embryos (48%). On the other hand, only 5% of bisected embryos frozen-thawed at the late morula to blastocyst stage developed to young. The transfer of 15 sets of twin blastocysts as pairs that had been frozen and thawed at the compacted 4- to 8-cell stage yielded 2 (13%) sets of monozygotic twins.