What Would You Do For A Klondike Dog?

Article website for the story about Klondike:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130205101153.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fplants_animals%2Fzoology+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Plants+%26+Animals+News+--+Zoology%29

Pereira, R. M., and Marques, C. C. 2008. Animal oocyte and embryo cryopreservation. Cell Tissue Banking. 9:267-277. doi 10.11007/s10561-008-9075-2

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10561-008-9075-2?LI=true

                                                                  http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb13/KlondikeJordan.jpg

This is Klondike, a beagle-labrador retriever mix. Not only is he an adorable puppy, he was born from a frozen embryo. Cryopreservation of embryos is a crucial step for the conservation of animals (Pereira et al., 2008). Klondike plays a huge role in the development of the cryopreservation process. Embryos (and oocytes) can undergo considerable morphological and functional damage during this process. Depending on the species and the stage of development, differences in survival and development vary (Pereira et al., 2008). Two methods for preserving embryos are currently used: slow freezing and vitrification. The most successful method has proven to be vitrification.

According to wikipedia, vitrification is "the transformation of a substance to glass by rapidly cooling a liquid through the glass transition." This is how cryopreservation works. Biological processes that would otherwise cause cell death are stopped. The only issue with this method is the thawing process, where the most damage can occur if a cryoprotectant is not used.

Researchers from Cornell's Baker Institute of Animal Health and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute worked with the cryopreservation process to freeze fertilized eggs. This provides an avenue to help repopulate endangered species. Since dogs are only able to have litters once or twice a year, the cryopreservation process is used to coordinate the proper timing to implant an embryo into a surrogate.

Alex Travis, a Baker faculty member, stated that "dogs have remarkably different reproduction than any other mammal". Therefore, determining the differences in reproduction for many mammals will "help preserve genetic diversity of endangered animals through assisted reproduction". The process of cryopreservation and storage of embryos will allow us to conserve the complete genetic complement of father and mother (Pereira et al., 2008), and will allow us to protect and manage endangered species more effectively.

This is the vitrification process for freezing the embryos (Pereira et al., 2008)

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