This study aimed to compare three methods of cell death assessment [trypan blue exclusion (TBE), propidium iodide viability assay (PIVA), and transmission electron microscopy] to evaluate fresh and frozen-thawed chicken primordial germ cells (PGCs). For this study, chicken PGCs were collected from ROSS 908 and Oravka breed hens, cryopreserved-thawed according to the protocol, and submitted for different cell death assessments. We observed significant differences between TBE and PIVA techniques in the detectable proportion of dead cells in fresh (14.14 ± 1.27 versus 7.16 ± 1.02%, respectively) and frozen-thawed (44.00 ± 2.11 versus 33.33 ± 1.67%, respectively) samples of the Oravka breed. Moreover, significant differences (p < 0.05) between TBE and PIVA techniques in the detectable proportion of dead cells in fresh (9.20 ± 0.60 versus 5.37 ± 0.51%) samples of ROSS 908 breed were recorded. Differences may be due to methodological, sensitivity, and toxicity features of each technique tested, where TB stains cell cytoplasm of dead cells and PI penetrates and intercalates into DNA of dead cells. Therefore, we suggest using a more precise and sensitive PIVA for viability evaluation of PGCs. Further research is needed to apply various fluorochromes for more detailed cell viability evaluation.
Keywords: cryopreservation; electron microscopy; primordial germ cells; viability.