X-Message-Number: 2296 Date: Sat, 5 Jun 93 00:26:44 CDT From: Brian Wowk <> Subject: CRYONICS dehydration Gregory Bloom: > Interesting. So glycerol is used for both dehydration and ice inhibition. > Have there been studies done to separate the importance of either effect? > Or are there no inhibitors of ice formation that would not also dehydrate > the cells? Also, given the apparent toxicity of glycerol, would there be > any advantage to simply dehydrating with salts and letting the remaining > water freeze? (I suppose this would depend on how active the membrane > ion transport channels are down around 0 Deg C?) Good questions. Unfortunately they are extending beyond the realm of my knowledge. My one comment would be that perhaps osmotic shock is what makes concentrated glycerol toxic. If so, concentrated salt solutions would be similarly toxic, and not even suppress ice formation during deep cooling. --- Brian Wowk Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2296