The mechanisms of freezing injury in living cells were reviewed. The freezing injury takes place by at least two different factors depending upon cooling rate, those are intracellular freezing and extracellular freezing. The freezing injury caused by extracellular freezing also takes place by two different factors, those are direct and indirect effects by the formation of extracellular ice. These different stresses by freezing cause different damages on the plasma membranes in the same cell. Furthermore, freezing of different cell results in different form of membrane damage. Thus, the occurrence of freezing injury takes place by diverse mechanisms depending upon not only different freezing stresses but also difference of cell type.
