The expert spoke about the prospects of freezing donor organs.

An experiment by German scientists on cryopreservation of the mouse brain opens up prospects for further research, but scaling the technology to larger organs remains a difficult task. Igor Artyukhov, an expert in the field of cryonics, told Izvestia about this.

According to him, the main difficulties of cryopreservation are already well known. These include the formation of ice crystals that damage cells and their structures, as well as the risk of ice re—forming when tissues are warmed. In addition, the toxicity of cryoprotectants, substances that have to be used in high concentrations to prevent crystallization, remains a serious problem.

The expert explained that these problems are gradually being solved at the level of small tissue samples. However, when moving to large organs, complexity increases dramatically due to the scale and features of biological structures.

"This is exactly the path where neither fences nor precipices are visible, and which must be gradually traversed," Artyukhov said in an interview with Izvestia.

Today, the main application of cryopreservation remains medicine, primarily the preservation of donor organs for transplantation. Currently, most organs can only be stored for a few hours after extraction, which creates a significant logistical burden: during this time, it is necessary to check the organ for viability and infections, select a recipient, prepare it for surgery and deliver the transplant.

"The creation of organ banks can dramatically change this situation. It will be possible to slowly select the best compatible and infection—tested transplant, prepare the recipient and perform the operation in the safest possible conditions," the specialist shared.

At the same time, cooling technologies are already used in clinical practice. For example, therapeutic hypothermia is used to protect the brain in critical conditions such as injury, stroke, and cardiac arrest, helping to preserve nerve cells.

Read more in the Izvestia article.

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