Innovation in cryopreservation & cold chain management

Successful cryopreservation depends to a large extent on how the cell water compartments respond to ultra-low temperature cooling, which in itself is necessary to inhibit all molecular interactions for long-term biopreservation. Biophysical principles dictate that water will undergo ice nucleation during cooling, which will cause severe cell injury in a number of complex ways, which can be mitigated by how the cryo-cooling is undertaken. The ice burden can be reduced by adding appropriate biocompatible solutes, called cryoprotectants (CPA), which act in a colligative fashion to interfere with the water-to-ice transition as deep cooling progresses, until the temperature range where the whole mixture enters a low temperature ‘glassy’ state (Tg) whence all other molecular interactions are inhibited. Optimisation of cell survival can also be achieved by controlling the kinetics of both cooling and warming rates during cryopreservation, which limit ice crystal growth until final melting temperatures are reached and normal cell biology can resume in the liquid aqueous state. 

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