What is the largest living thing that has been successfully pulled out of cryo? A single cell? Disconnected tissue? An organ?
I’d find a single cell not terribly convincing, a working organ much more so.
(context: I haven’t signed up and don’t currently intend to, but it’s mentally marked as “keep an eye on this, additional information may change my mind.”)
Technically, it’s the frogs and fish that routinely freeze through the winter. Of course, they evolved to pull off that stunt, so it’s less impressive.
We’ve cryopreserved a whole mouse kidney before, and were able to thaw and use it as a mouse’s sole kidney.
The trouble is that larger chunks of tissue (like, say, a whole mouse or a human brain) are more prone to thermal cracking at very low temperatures. Until we solve that problem, nobody’s coming back short of brain emulation or nanotechnology.
Nitpick: The article talks about a rabbit kidney, not a mouse one
It also isn’t entirely clear how cold the kidney got, or how long it was stored. It’s evidence in favor of “at death” cryonics, but I’m not sure how strong of evidence it is. Also, it’s possible to survive with substantially more kidney damage than you would even want to incur as brain damage.
What is the largest living thing that has been successfully pulled out of cryo? A single cell? Disconnected tissue? An organ?
I’d find a single cell not terribly convincing, a working organ much more so.
(context: I haven’t signed up and don’t currently intend to, but it’s mentally marked as “keep an eye on this, additional information may change my mind.”)
Technically, it’s the frogs and fish that routinely freeze through the winter. Of course, they evolved to pull off that stunt, so it’s less impressive.
We’ve cryopreserved a whole mouse kidney before, and were able to thaw and use it as a mouse’s sole kidney.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2781097/
We’ve also shown that nematode memory can survive cryopreservation:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3107805/Could-brains-stay-forever-young-Memories-survive-cryogenic-preservation-study-shows.html
The trouble is that larger chunks of tissue (like, say, a whole mouse or a human brain) are more prone to thermal cracking at very low temperatures. Until we solve that problem, nobody’s coming back short of brain emulation or nanotechnology.
Nitpick: The article talks about a rabbit kidney, not a mouse one
It also isn’t entirely clear how cold the kidney got, or how long it was stored. It’s evidence in favor of “at death” cryonics, but I’m not sure how strong of evidence it is. Also, it’s possible to survive with substantially more kidney damage than you would even want to incur as brain damage.
Waterbears routinely survive freeze-thaw cycles (and much more besides).