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Updated: May 22, 2026
Fertility Preservation Through Oocyte Vitrification: Clinical and Laboratory Perspectives
Published on: September 16, 2021
One-step warming procedure improves embryonic development of vitrified mouse oocytes by mitigating mitochondrial
Hao Wang1, Mingzhe Li2, Qi Jiang3
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Center for Reproductive Medicine, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of School of Medicine, and International School of Medicine, International Institutes of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Yiwu, China.
Purpose:
To investigate whether the one-step warming (OW) procedure affects oocyte survival and developmental potential after fertilization in vitrified oocytes.
Methods:
Standard vitrified mouse oocytes were warmed using two different procedures: (1) standard multi-step warming (SW) and (2) one-step warming (OW). The survival rates and early embryonic development potentials of the warmed oocytes were compared following insemination by piezo-ICSI. Spindle integrity of the warmed oocytes was evaluated by α-tubulin/Hoechst staining, and mitochondrial status was assessed using Mitotracker/JC-1 staining, with mitochondrial damage analyzed by Confocal microscope. Additionally, the apoptosis status of the resulting blastocysts in each group was compared using a TUNEL assay.
Results:
The OW procedure maintained oocyte survival and fertilization rates comparable to those of the SW procedure, but significantly (P < 0.05) increased blastocyst development after fertilization. Mechanistic measures revealed that the OW procedure improved embryonic developmental potential by mitigating mitochondrial damage compared with the SW procedure.
Conclusions:
These findings provide a theoretical foundation for optimizing the OW procedure for already vitrified and stored oocytes in ARTs.
