Comparison of Cryopreservation of Mouse Sperm vs Embryos
| Sperm | Embryos | |
| Advantage | Cheaper to cryopreserve, requires only one day of work, requires only two males/line | Embryos are frozen post fertilization, recovery to live offspring easier |
| Disadvantage | Only freeze one gamete, revival through IVF (labor extensive and costly), must use wildtype females as egg donors | Requires at least 8 females |
| # animals needed | 2 males/line | One heterozygous or homozygous breeder male and 8-16 weanling females |
| # days to complete | One day | One to two days |
| Cost | $605/2 males | $1010-$1700 |
- Embryo cryopreservation is an efficient means of long-term storage of valuable strains.
- Embryo cryopreservation works well for double and triple gene mutations on standard genetic backgrounds.
- This service is available for both mice and rats.
- Cheaper and easier recovery to live offspring.
- Yearly storage fee depending on # samples stored.
Mouse embryo cryopreservation has the following steps:
- Contact Animal Models Core (animalmodels@biotech.wisc.edu) to discuss scheduling.
- Assessm of animal colony to assure one proven male and at least 8 weaned females are available for superovulation. GEAM may need close to 15 females to obtain good quality embryos for cryopreservation.
- GEAM will perform IVF and cryopreserve two-cell embryos.
- We recommend freezing 100-125 embryos if homozygous or 175-200 heterozygous embryos are preserved.
- Recovery of live animals by thawing and surgically transferring the frozen embryos into pseudopregnant recipients.
| Mouse Embryo Cryopreservation | UW Price |
| 1-5 donor females | $1010 |
| 6-10 donor females | $1160 |
| 11-14 donor females | $1240 |