Prospective randomized study on the cryopreservation of human embryos with dimethylsulfoxide or 1,2-propanediol protocols.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide, non-peptide solvent) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To investigate the optimal protocol for cryopreservation of human embryos obtained from IVF.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 488 patients taking part.

PubMed tags the participants as women only.

Consenting patients in an academic research environment.

A cohort of 2,220 supernumerary multicellular embryos were obtained from 488 patients who were randomized over slow freezing protocols with dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO, 819 embryos), 1,2-propanediol (699 embryos) or a mixture of DMSO and 1,2-propanediol (702 embryos).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide, non-peptide solvent) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

A total of 725 embryos have been thawed (DMSO, 232 embryos; 1,2-propanediol, 250 embryos and DMSO and 1,2-propanediol, 243 embryos) for transfer in natural ovarian cycles.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Birth Rate, Cryopreservation, Cryoprotective Agents, Dimethyl Sulfoxide, Drug Combinations, Embryo Implantation and Embryo Transfer.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide, non-peptide solvent) in 488 patients.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Its findings take up roughly 8 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 1995 (Fertility and sterility), a journal based in United States.

More context: the DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide, non-peptide solvent) compound page, all human trials.