[Vitrification: a cryopreservation method useful for mammal embryos].

The author first exposes the theoretical concept of vitrification before giving the conditions required to formulate the composition of an adequate vitrification solution. These conditions are: -the choice of the cryoprotectant (non toxic), its concentration, the addition or not of a macromolecule like Ficoll, PVP, to facilitate vitrification and/or a sugar like sucrose; -the time and temperature of exposure to the vitrification solution as well as the dilution procedure after thawing to minimize osmotic and toxic stress. Then he presents in a series of tables, a summary of the results of vitrification of oocytes and embryos of laboratory and domestic animal species and he mentions some parameters influencing the results such as the species, the stage of development, the origin of the embryos. He concludes that vitrification seems to be an interesting method for cryopreservation of gametes and embryos.