Many IVF laboratories use micro drops under oil for embryo production, to protect the media from osmotic and pH changes when transitioning to-and-from the incubator environment. Oil is susceptible to contamination by volatile organic compounds, hydroperoxides and other oil-breakdown contaminates if not stored optimally over time.  If you aliquot your freshly purchased batch of oil, we recommend using glass vessels. Individual contaminants can be difficult to identify, but these can cause poor or variable results when using unscreened oils. We recommend IVF laboratories source their oil either from human IVF media companies or purchase specific MEA tested oil.   

New batches of plasticware are another potential source of contaminants that may cause variation to your IVF results. The majority of plasticware used in the IVF laboratory will be polystyrene or polycarbonate which are more porous to water vapour than mineral oil. It is therefore favourable to use an overlay of oil with these types of plastics to prevent water evaporation from your media during embryo culture, and maintain osmolarity and pH of the media. MEA and/or BEA tested plasticware can give you confidence that the consumables you are using are “embryo-safe” which is a must before beginning expensive and time-consuming embryology work. 

At ART Lab Solutions our bovine media is both MEA and BEA tested to ensure it is toxicity free and performs consistently between batches. ART Lab Solutions can facilitate your MEA or BEA testing requirements for oils and other laboratory consumables and products if required.