Good survival!

[Ashok Mudgapalli]

Dear netters
Have any body tried arranging the embryos on double stick tape at very 
low density for microinjections? Probably my experiance may help some 
folks who are doing microinjections.
After chemical (clorax) dechorination, I arranged the embryos at least 
1mm apart on 13mm double stick tape. I did not exceed more than 12/cover 
slip. When I did the injections (after dessication for appropriate time), 
to my surprise I got more than 60% survival and from few slides I got 
about 85% survival. I compared this with control which has about 25-30 
embryos on 13mm tape. From controls I got about 10-15% survival. For 
quite some time I was having trouble with good survival. I never got more 
than 15% survival in the past. Now with this new method I am consistently 
getting very good survival.
	Probably some body can answer this mystery (at least mistery to 
me).Why overcrowding the embryos on tape reduced the survival rate and 
why there is a dramatic increase in survival after reducing the no. of 
embryos per slide.
	People who are currently involved in microinjections can try this 
method and I appreciate sharing their experiances with netters.