Accelerating Progress Towards the Reversible Cryopreservation of Organs

There is a growing level of interest and funding for the goal of reversible cryopreservation of whole organs. If achieved, this would radically improve the logistics of organ donation, allowing organs to be kept indefinitely before use. Proof of principle demonstrations have been carried out, but the field has lacked the funding and impetus to rapidly build upon that starting point. Hopefully this will change. The ability to reliably vitrify and thaw large tissue sections with minimal ice crystal formation, cell death, or other structural damage will add legitimacy to the goal of human cryopreservation, storing patients at the time of death to allow the possibility of future revival in an environment of far more capable biotechnology. When scientists in the 1950s tried to cool hamsters to 0°C and rewarm them, it didn't go great. In 2002, things looked rosier when a scientist chilled a single rabbit kidney down to -130°C, then rewarmed it and transplanted it into a live rabbit, where it worked for 48 days. Then not much else succeeded for the next decade. Chilling and re-warming organs, it turns out, is really, really hard. Ice crystals that form during cooling and re-warming cause massive physical damage to cells and whole tissues. To nudge the field forward, in 2014 a group of entrepreneurs formed the nonprofit Organ Preservation Alliance (OPA). In the years since, the OPA coordinated numerous conferences and publications and prompted the creation of a Nati...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs