CRYOPRESERVATION OF A HUMAN BRAIN AND ITS EXPERIMENTAL CORRELATE IN RATS

CANATELLI-MALLAT, MARTINA; LASCARAY, FRANCISCO; MARÍA ESTRAIGUES-ABRAMSOM; ENRIQUE, PORIANSKY; GUSTAVO R. MOREL; GOYA, RODOLFO G.

REJUVENATION RESEARCH

MARY ANN LIEBERT INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2020

1549-1684

The objective here is to report the first case of human brain cryopreservation in Argentinaas well as complementary experiments in rats. After legal death, the body of a 78 year oldCaucasian woman was transported to a funeral home where her head was submitted tointracarotid perfusion with 5 l cold physiologic saline followed by the same volume of coldsaline containing 13% DMSO and 13% glycerol. The brain was removed, temporarily frozenat -80ºC and shipped to a USA cryostasis facility. Three groups of rats were intracardiallyperfused with either fixative but not frozen (Reference group), vitrification solution VM1(Control group) or the cryoprotection solution used in the patient (Experimental group).Control and Experimental brains were stored at -80ºC and subsequently assessed byimmunohistochemistry for the adult neuron marker (NeuN), the immature neuron markerdoublecortin (DCX), the dopaminergic neuron marker tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and thepresynaptic marker synaptophysin (SYN). The number of NeuN positive neurons remainedunchanged in the experimental brain cortex whereas the number of immature DCXneurons in the hippocampus fell markedly in the cryoprotected brains. The results werehighly variable for hypothalamic dopaminergic neurons. Confocal microscopy for SYNrevealed that cryopreservation did not affect the synaptic network in the hippocampus. Toour knowledge, this is the first report correlating a human cryoprotection procedure withresults in complementary experiments in laboratory animals.