2-11. What is vitrification?
Description
This article is from the Cryonics FAQ, by Tim Freeman tim@infoscreen.com with numerous contributions by others.
2-11. What is vitrification?
(Next paragraph copied from CRYOMSG 6 posted by Kevin Brown)
The cover article of the Aug. 29, 1987 issue of Science News describes
vitrification, which achieves cooling to a glassy state without the
water crystallizing into ice. The advantage of this is that the cells
do not suffer the mechanical damage from the crystallization. The
main disadvantage is that the concentration of cryoprotectants
required to achieve this is toxic. It is also, currently, a
technically difficult and expensive process requiring computer control
of cooling rates, perfusion, etc. The March, 1988 issue of Cryonics
magazine ("The Future of Medicine", Part 2 of 2) suggests that
vitrification may not be needed for ordinary organ banking, since
other, cheaper methods may be good enough. For tissues and cells,
though, it has a lot of promise for the commercial market. Thus,
commercial research into vitrification may stop short of what is
needed for making it viable for preservation of large organs or whole
bodies required by cryonics.
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