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 Cryopreservation For Cats First we had test-tube babies, now we have ice-cube kitties! A special new process called Cryopreservation is responsible for the birth of three furry little felines. “On October 3, a team of American and Japanese researchers from the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species (New Orleans) and the Kato Ladies Clinic (Tokyo) announced success in producing what they are calling the world’s first kittens born from the frozen egg cells of a domestic cat,” Pink Tentacle reported. “Feline ova have long proved difficult to freeze properly because of their high fat content.” I just wonder what they are going to name them? Icicle, Cracked, Cube? In all seriousness, if this works it will be a way to save a lot of endangered felines on the planet, and if it works on other types of ova, then we could be on the way to repopulating some nearly extinct species.  The breakthrough is expected to help protect endangered and threatened cat species, say the researchers, who obtained a total of 28 egg cells from ovaries removed from a female pet cat undergoing a desexing operation. After preserving the eggs through vitrification — a rapid cooling technique that prevents the fluid inside the eggs from forming into ice — and placing them in cold storage for 3 weeks, the researchers thawed 18 of the eggs, fertilized them through micro-insemination, and implanted the embryos into the womb of a surrogate mother cat. Two months later, at the end of August, three healthy “ice kittens” (two females and one male) were born at the Audubon Center, where they remain in good condition.
(pinktentacle)References: auduboninstitute.org, pinktentacle Comment: on Felines From Frozen Eggs |
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