Laboratory rats have been used to investigate human health and disease and to evaluate drug efficacy and toxicity for over 170 years. In recent years, the advent of gene-specific nucleases has accelerated the generation of genetically engineered rat models for research. Rat sperm cryopreservation is an efficient and cost-effective procedure for archiving and distributing these valuable strains.
In a new protocol, Toru Takeo, Satohiro Nakao and colleagues at Kumamoto University and Niigata University in Japan describe an optimized method for sperm cryopreservation and in vitro fertilization (IVF) in rats. In this optimized protocol, treatment of frozen-thawed rat sperm with a high concentration of bovine serum albumin results in a high IVF rate in outbred, inbred and genetically modified rats. This method provides an efficient system for the preservation of rat resources.
