X-Message-Number: 26264
Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 18:18:38 -0400
From: Randolfe Wicker <>
Subject: Vitrification makes medical inroads

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Vitrification is a term known mainly to cryonicists.  However, if someone reacts
skeptically to the idea that it can be an effective technique in preserving 
"living" tissue, refer them to this article from Bionews:

* NEW TECHNIQUE MAY IMPROVE SUCCESS OF EGG FREEZING:


Scientists from the University of Michigan, US, have developed a new egg 
freezing technique that may improve the chances of women who want to have 
children following treatment for cancer.

    Treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy can render a woman 
    infertile, so researchers have been looking at ways to preserve a woman's 
    fertility. One way is to collect a number of eggs and keep them in frozen 
    storage until the woman recovers and is healthy enough to sustain a 
    pregnancy. However, egg freezing has long proved to be a difficult technique
    to perfect, as freezing and thawing egg cells tends to create ice crystals,
    which damage them. This is because egg cells have much higher water content
    than sperm, and are much larger than sperm cells, which are much easier to 
    freeze and thaw. The first baby to be born in the US from a frozen egg was 
    in 1997, and there have been relatively few successes since - the first 
    'frozen egg baby' in the UK was born in 2002. The UK's Human Fertilisation 
    and Embryology Authority only authorised the procedure - because of safety 
    reasons - in 2000.

    Now, the US researchers have devised a technique that means an egg can be 
    almost instantly thawed, reducing the damage done by the process. The new 
    freezing process - known as vitrification - seems to work by allowing fewer 
    ice crystals to form in the frozen eggs while they are returned to their 
    usual state. The researchers say that they have tested the new process on 
    mouse eggs, and are achieving a high 'survival rate'. They are now working 
    on the development of a clinical technique that can be used in humans. Gary 
    Smith, of Michigan University's Comprehensive Cancer Centre, said that 'with
    traditional slow-freeze techniques, just over half the eggs survive the 
    thawing process'. He added: 'Using vitrification, we are getting a 98 per 
    cent survival'.

    The researchers have found that they have low IVF fertilisation rates using 
    vitrified mouse eggs, meaning that they need to use intracytoplasmic sperm 
    injection (ICSI), a variant of IVF in which a single sperm is injected 
    directly into the egg to fertilise it. In mice, 80 per cent of thawed 
    vitrified eggs fertilised using IVF, producing a live birth rate of about 30
    per cent. Dr Allan Pacey, from the British Fertility Society, told the BBC 
    that 'if this work bears out and the success rate is that high, it would 
    revolutionise the way that we preserve eggs'. According to the BBC, doctors 
    in Taiwan report that they have already achieved a pregnancy in a woman 
    using vitrified eggs.

  - Medical News Today 30/5/2005 'Technique may allow cancer patients to freeze 
  eggs, preserving fertility before starting treatment'
  - Medical News Today:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=25352
  - BBC News Online 29/5/2005 'Fast-freeze 'boosts egg survival' '

Randolfe H. Wicker
Founder, Clone Rights United Front www.clonerights.com 
Spokesperson, Reproductive Cloning Network, www.reproductivecloning.net 
Correspondent, , StemClone Digest, www.StemCloneDigest.com 
Advisor, The Immortality Institute, www.imminst.org 
201-656-3280 (Mornings)


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