Abstract
It has been believed that exposure to hypertonic solution during freezing is the major cause of the post-thaw cellular injury after freezing with low cooling rate. To develop a fundamental understanding of cell damage due to hypertonic solution, we have developed a new perfusion technique that isolates the effect of exposure to hypertonic solutions from other effects associated with ice crystals. Using human prostatic adenocarcinoma cells we characterized post-hypertonic survival as a function of hypertonic solution concentration, the time of exposure, and the rate of increase or decrease in solution concentration. The post-hypertonic viability depended on the increase rate of concentration as well as the solution concentration and the time of exposure.
