Efficiency and Safety of Human Reproductive Cell/Tissue Vitrification

Abstract

Vitrification is a cryopreservation technique increasingly applied in clinical practice for cells and tissue. This review article focuses mainly on the efficiency of vitrification of human reproductive cells and tissue, by analysing the clinical results reported in the literature. The second aspect discussed is safety of vitrification procedure. Different procedures and different types of carriers can be used, and in some cases vitrification requires a direct contact between cell/tissue/carrier and liquid nitrogen; this causes concern regarding the safety of this cryopreservation technique. Although the risk of contamination during cryopreservation remains negligible, this article explains how to overcome the hypothetical risk of contamination when using different types of vitrification carriers, in order to satisfy all existing directives.