Freezing organs seems like science fiction, but comes a step closer thanks to antifreeze cocktail

Cryonicism – the freezing of a dead body to bring it back to life later – is still mainly something from the worse Netflix series, but scientists have taken a first step towards the safe freezing and long-term storage of donor organs. Thanks to a combination of different ‘antifreeze’ agents.

The Australian team at RMIT University in Melbourne hopes that this will pave the way for the safe storage of human organs, such as livers, lungs and hearts. According to lead researcher Dr. Saffron Bryant, about 60 percent of donated hearts and lungs are in practice unusable due to time constraints and logistical problems.

The freezing of living tissue at very low temperatures so that it can be stored for years is also called cryopreservation. Storing cells in this way has great advantages and makes many more transplants possible. The technique is already being used to store blood serum, sperm and egg cells.

Time pressure

Logistically, it is an enormous advantage when organs are ready in the freezer. Now there is still enormous time pressure if organs suddenly become available. Unfortunately, it is currently not yet possible to freeze organs without damaging the tissue. “There is an enormous scarcity of organs. If an organ is released, it has to be transferred from donor to patient within hours,” Bryant says. It is a shame that more than half of the organs cannot be used. Cryopreservation can make a big difference. “Freezing biological tissue has been done for 50 years using the same two protective agents, but they don’t work for organs and many other cell types,” she explains. The agents can be compared to antifreeze for the car.

“Ice crystals destroy cells from within. The protective fluids prevent damage from dehydration and crystal formation in the cell. The cell contents change into a hard, glass-like substance, which returns to its original shape after heating.” The research team found that a combination of the substances proline and glycerol worked best for four different cell types, including skin and brain tissue. The cells were treated with the freezing agent at 37 degrees Celsius and placed in the freezer.

Antifreeze cocktail

“This protective cocktail is more efficient and less toxic than the individual agents,” Bryant said. “Little research has been done on this type of antifreeze in mammalian tissue. The results of this study will hopefully lead to the development of thousands of other protective fluids that can be used to freeze specific cell types.”

According to her, the treatment is a crucial step towards storing organs and tissues in the future. “Treating the tissue for a few hours at body temperature with the agent is enough to penetrate deep into the cell tissue. But we still have a long way to go.”

“Our research only looked at responses of individual cells to the fluid. Treating and freezing an organ is even more complicated. But if it is possible to store organs for years, there may be no waiting lists at all in the future. That would be great.”

The RMIT team continues its research into cryopreservation. “We are working with blood banks to explore the freezing options for blood products, such as platelets. This could be vital for the treatment of patients who have lost a lot of blood,” Bryant says. “With current technology, it is possible to store platelets for a week. If this body’s own substance can be successfully frozen, it can still be used years later.”