Work

Emerging Technologies in Medical Applications of Minimum Volume Vitrification

Year: 2011

Type: article

Abstract: 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 concentrations are required, which induces toxicity and osmotic stress to cells and tissues. It has been shown that vitrification using small sample volumes (i.e., <1 µl) significantly increases cooling rates and hence reduces the required cryoprotectant agent 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.

Source: Nanomedicine

DOI: 10.2217/nnm.11.71

Authors: Xiaohui Zhang, Paolo N Catalano, Umut Atakan Gurkan, Imran Khimji, Utkan Demirci

Institutions: Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard University, Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Language: English

Topic: nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions

Subfield: Atmospheric Science

Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering