Cryopiece, a novel carrier with faster cooling rate, high recovery rate and retrieval rate, for individual sperm cryopreservation

Zi-Jue Zhu; Jing Zhai; Jian-Lin Hu; Yi-Zhou Wang; Wei Chen; Feng Liu; Yong-Hua Huang; Zheng Li

doi:10.21037/tau-20-1080

Cryopiece, a novel carrier with faster cooling rate, high recovery rate and retrieval rate, for individual sperm cryopreservation

Transl Androl Urol. 2021 Mar;10(3):1121-1132. doi: 10.21037/tau-20-1080.

Authors

Zi-Jue Zhu^{1

2}, Jing Zhai^{1

2}, Jian-Lin Hu³, Yi-Zhou Wang^{1

2}, Wei Chen³, Feng Liu^{1

2}, Yong-Hua Huang⁴, Zheng Li^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Andrology, Urological Medical Center, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
² Shanghai Key Lab of Reproductive Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
³ Department Of ART, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Background: Cryopreservation of extremely few spermatozoa is still a major challenge for male fertility preservation. This study aims to evaluate the cooling rate, recovery rate, and retrieval rate, along with other parameters of spermatozoa that cryopreserved using Cryopiece, a novel carrier, for individual sperm cryopreservation.

Methods: Semen samples from 60 fertile donors were collected, and each semen sample was screened for motile sperm and mixed with cryoprotective agent (CPA), and then frozen using Cryopiece, micro-straw, and mini-straws. The cooling rate, retrieval rate, and recovery rate, morphology, DNA fragmentation index (DFI) and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), were compared among the un-frozen sperm and the sperm cryopreserved using these carriers.

Results: Cryopiece possessed the fastest cooling rate. After freeze-thaw, the average retrieval rate of sperm cryopreserved using Cryopiece was 96.25%, and the average recovery rate was 64.40%, which were higher than that of sperm cryopreserved using the other two carriers (71.42% and 54.30% for micro-straw, and 63.54% and 58.04% for mini-straw, respectively). There was no significant impact on DFI after sperm cryopreservation, and no significant difference in morphology between sperm cryopreserved using these carriers was observed. Though MMP of sperm changed significantly after cryopreservation, micro-straw maintained sperm MMP better than Cryopiece and mini-straw did, while no significant difference was observed in MMP between sperm cryopreserved using Cryopiece and mini-straw.

Conclusions: Cryopiece produced satisfying retrieval and recovery rates in sperm cryopreservation and should be an ideal carrier for cryopreservation of small number of sperm.

Keywords: DNA fragmentation index (DFI); Individual sperm cryopreservation; mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP); morphology; recovery and retrieval rate.