Japanese Scientists Tried Mailing Freeze-Dried Mouse Sperm on a Postcard – Here’s What They Discover
upstart writes:
Scientists no longer have to worry about their bottles of mouse sperm breaking in transit.
[...] "When I developed this method for preserving mouse sperm by freeze-drying it on a sheet, I thought that it should be able to be mailed on a postcard, and so when offspring were actually born after being mailed, I was very impressed," says first author Daiyu Ito of the University of Yamanashi in Japan. "The postcard strategy was easier and cheaper compared to any other method.
[...] Ito is part of Teruhiko Wakayama's lab, which had previously been the first team to succeed in freeze-drying and preserving mammalian sperm, which they sent to the space station to study the effects of space radiation on baby mice. The sperm was originally preserved in a glass ampule, which is a bottle made of glass; although these bottles were small, they were quite bulky and broke easily, rendering the sperm they carried unusable. The team needed large volumes of mouse sperm for their research in space, but because cushions had to be used to prevent breakage during the rocket launch, they could only carry a small amount.
Thus, with these setbacks in mind, the lab began its search for a new preservation method-one that didn't break or require much preservation space. Plastic sheets were the best fit because they were compact and wouldn't break. But the sheets were toxic for the sperm, so the team tried and failed as they tested various materials to go inside the plastic sheets. Finally, the researchers discovered that weighing paper was the easiest to handle and had the highest offspring rate.
Journal Reference:
Daiyu Ito, Sayaka Wakayama, Rina Emura, et al. Mailing viable mouse freeze-dried spermatozoa on postcards. iScience, 2021; 102815 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102815
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