New Method to Preserve Transplant Tissue

A new method to chill body tissues and organs well below freezing without forming ice crystals could make many more tissues and organs available for transplant.

The new process for tissue vitrification, chilling tissues and organs to a disordered glass-like solid without ice formation, was developed by the Organ Recovery Systems of Chicago (IL, USA), with support from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (www.nist.gov) and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (www.nih.gov). The new method combines a mixture of cryoprotectant compounds that cancel each other's toxicity with careful control of the cooling and warming processes to minimize damage to the tissue.

A significant roadblock to the broader use of transplantation, regardless of the source, has been the problem of preserving the transplant tissue. Better preservation techniques would allow transplant materials to be shipped anywhere in the world, or collected and stored in something akin to blood banks until needed. This would permit body tissues such as blood vessels, cartilage, and skin as well as whole organs such as kidneys, livers, and hearts to become widely available as transplants.





Related Links:
U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology
U.S. National Institutes of Health