Sperm Cryopreservation
The Core offers an alternate procedure to preserve important mouse lines that either fail to generate sufficient number of embryos for cryopreservation, or when the breeder males are not located within the barrier Facility. This service also offers similar benefits to those of embryo cryopreservation by protecting the mouse lines from losses and by reducing the housing cost and cage space.
For this service we recommend a one-time harvest of embryos to be frozen prior to sacrificing the males for cryopreservation.
A set of 5-7 young male mice will be transferred to the Core by ULAR after proper documentation is submitted. Once admitted to the colony, the animals will be mated with females to generate embryos to be frozen. Then 3 males will be sacrificed and the sperm collected and frozen. The Core will store the frozen samples and maintain the records of your cryopreserved lines at the fee of $24.00/line/year.
It is highly recommended that young and productive males be used for this process, so that the future line re-derivation process through IVF would be successful.
Investigator’s Responsibilities
The investigator should contact Jean Richa (215-573-3023) to discuss the plans for the service. These would include the availability of the males, the possibility of admitting the animals into the barrier facility, the number of mouse lines involved, and the service fees.