Fast measurement of cooling and heating rates in standard cryopreservation protocols

ALINE S. TEIXEIRA; M. ELENA GONZALEZ-BENITO; ANTONIO D. MOLINA-GARCÍA

CRYOBIOLOGY

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

Lugar: London; Año: 2010 vol. 61 p. 370 - 370

0011-2240

We attempted to confirm that vitrification has an advantage of causing less mechanical stress to the biological material over freezing on cellular level. In a recent study we observed the actin underlining of the cellular membrane and also the actin distribution through the cytoskeleton, two of the sub-cellular arrangements that would be greatly affected by mechanical damage. Our study on the effect of different cryopreservation strategies on the cell actin distribution and membrane thinning (or most specifically the thinning of the actin band underlying the cellular membrane) clearly showed that the detrimental effects of cryopreservation by freezing are much more prominent than those incurred by the hepatocytes preserved using the vitrification approach. Therefore, we may conclude that vitrification as the concept of cryopreservation has advanced from single non-sensitive cells to the sensitive cell (e.g. human egg) and currently handling of multiple biological objects, even in up-scaled conditions. There is no doubt in universality of vitrification strategy.