IBYME   02675
INSTITUTO DE BIOLOGIA Y MEDICINA EXPERIMENTAL
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Emerging Technologies in Medical Applications of Minimum Volume Vitrification
Autor/es:
XIAOHUI ZHANG; PAOLO N CATALANO; UMUT ATAKAN GURKAN; IMRAN KHIMJI; UTKAN DEMIRCI
Revista:
NANOMEDICINE
Editorial:
FUTURE MEDICINE LTD
Referencias:
Lugar: Londres; Año: 2011
ISSN:
1743-5889
Resumen:
Cell/tissue biopreservation has broad public health and socio-economic impact affecting millions of lives. Cryopreservation technologies provide an efficient way to preserve cells and tissues targeting the clinic for applications including reproductive medicine and organ transplantation. Among these technologies, vitrification has displayed significant improvement in post-thaw cell viability and function by eliminating harmful effects of ice crystal formation compared to the traditional slow freezing methods. However, high cryoprotectant agent (CPA) concentrations are required, which is known to induce toxicity and osmotic stress to cells and tissues. It has been shown that vitrification using small sample volumes (i.e. < 1 ìL) significantly increases cooling rates and hence reduces the required CPA levels. Recently, emerging nano- and micro-scale technologies have shown potential to manipulate picoliter to nanoliter sample sizes. Therefore, the synergistic integration of nanoscale technologies with cryogenics has the potential to improve biopreservation methods. In this article, we present minimum volume vitrification technologies with a focus on droplet-vitrification. We highlight specific applications of these methods in biology and medicine for cryopreservation of cells, tissues, and tissue-engineered constructs.