Advantages of Ice-Free Cryopreservation Method for Storing Tissue-Engineered Blood Vessels Are Described in Tissue Engineering.

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. -- Ice-free cryopreservation, or vitrification, methods for storing tissue engineered blood vessels have clear advantages over conventional freezing techniques and can accelerate the development and clinical availability of this alternate source of vascular grafts for surgical bypass procedures, according to a report in the February 2006 issue (Volume 12, Number 2) issue of Tissue Engineering, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The paper is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/ten.

Shannon Dahl, Ph.D., and colleagues from Duke University and Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC) and Organ Recovery Systems, Inc. (Charleston, SC) describe the improved viability and contractility of vitrified tissue-engineered blood vessels compared to frozen specimens in a paper entitled, "Feasibility of Vitrification as a Storage Method for Tissue Engineered Blood Vessels."

"Clearly, the ability to store tissue engineered products with the foreknowledge that function will be retained is critical to the emerging industry, making this work an important contribution that will be broadly felt," says Peter C. Johnson, M.D., President and CEO of Scintellix, LLC and Co-Editor in Chief of Tissue Engineering.

Vitrification is an ice-free alternative to conventional cryopreservation techniques. Whereas freezing of tissue samples results in damaging ice formation within cells and in the surrounding extracellular matrix, vitrification cryopreserves tissues without ice crystal formation. In vitrification, a supercooled liquid cryoprotectant solidifies, converting to a glassy state rather than to ice.

The authors demonstrated negligible ice formation in the vitrified samples. Importantly, they reported that engineered blood vessel specimens cryopreserved using vitrification had viability similar to that of fresh tissue and had contractile capability nearly 83% of fresh blood vessels, compared to less contractility of less than 11% for frozen specimens. They concluded that vitrification is a feasible storage method for tissue engineered blood vessels, which are being developed as an alternative source of vascular grafts for use in coronary or peripheral bypass surgical procedures.

Tissue Engineering is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online that brings together scientific and medical experts in the fields of biomedical engineering, material science, molecular and cellular biology, and genetic engineering. Tissue Engineering is the official journal of the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). Tables of contents and a free sample issue may be viewed online at www.liebertpub.com/ten.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Human Gene Therapy, Stem Cells and Development, and Cloning and Stem Cells. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 60 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at www.liebertpub.com.