X-Message-Number: 14917 From: "Brook Norton" <> Subject: how do cryoprotectants help? Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 13:13:49 -0800 Linda Chamberlain recent announced that vitrification procedures are soon to be applied to patients and this got me thinking. How do the currently administered cryoprotectants help? My understanding is that they lower the freezing point of the solution they are added to. But if the patient is cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature, wouldn't all the material freeze, cryoprotectant or not? Does the cryoprotectant reduce the scale of crystallization thereby maintaining better order in the tissue? Thanks, Brook Norton Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14917