Janet A.W. Elliott

Intercellular ice propagation: experimental evidence for ice growth through membrane pores.

Propagation of intracellular ice between cells significantly increases the prevalence of intracellular ice in confluent monolayers and tissues. It has been proposed that gap junctions facilitate ice propagation between cells. This study develops an equation for capillary freezing-point depression to determine the effect of temperature on the equilibrium radius of an ice crystal sufficiently small to grow through gap junctions. Convection cryomicroscopy and video image analysis were used to examine the incidence and pattern of intracellular ice formation (IIF) in the confluent monolayers of cell lines that do (MDCK) and do not (V-79W) form gap junctions. The effect of gap junctions on intracellular ice propagation was strongly temperature-dependent. For cells with gap junctions, IIF occurred in a directed wave-like pattern in 100% of the cells below -3 degrees C. At temperatures above -3 degrees C, there was a marked drop in the incidence of IIF, with isolated individual cells initially freezing randomly throughout the sample. This random pattern of IIF was also observed in the V-79W monolayers and in MDCK monolayers treated to prevent gap junction formation. The significant change in the low temperature behavior of confluent MDCK monolayers at -3 degrees C is likely the result of the inhibition of gap junction-facilitated ice propagation, and supports the theory that gap junctions facilitate ice nucleation between cells.

Mesenchymal stromal cells derived from various tissues: Biological, clinical and cryopreservation aspects.

Originally isolated from bone marrow, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have since been obtained from various fetal and post-natal tissues and are the focus of an increasing number of clinical trials. Because of their tremendous potential for cellular therapy, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, it is desirable to cryopreserve and bank MSCs to increase their access and availability. A remarkable amount of research and resources have been expended towards optimizing the protocols, freezing media composition, cooling devices and storage containers, as well as developing good manufacturing practices in order to ensure that MSCs retain their therapeutic characteristics following cryopreservation and that they are safe for clinical use. Here, we first present an overview of the identification of MSCs, their tissue sources and the properties that render them suitable as a cellular therapeutic. Next, we discuss the responses of cells during freezing and focus on the traditional and novel approaches used to cryopreserve MSCs. We conclude that viable MSCs from diverse tissues can be recovered after cryopreservation using a variety of freezing protocols, cryoprotectants, storage periods and temperatures. However, alterations in certain functions of MSCs following cryopreservation warrant future investigations on the recovery of cells post-thaw followed by expansion of functional cells in order to achieve their full therapeutic potential.

Osmotic Transport across Cell Membranes in Nondilute Solutions: A New Nondilute Solute Transport Equation

The fundamental physical mechanisms of water and solute transport across cell membranes have long been studied in the field of cell membrane biophysics. Cryobiology is a discipline that requires an understanding of osmotic transport across cell membranes under nondilute solution conditions, yet many of the currently-used transport formalisms make limiting dilute solution assumptions. While dilute solution assumptions are often appropriate under physiological conditions, they are rarely appropriate in cryobiology. The first objective of this article is to review commonly-used transport equations, and the explicit and implicit assumptions made when using the two-parameter and the Kedem-Katchalsky formalisms. The second objective of this article is to describe a set of transport equations that do not make the previous dilute solution or near-equilibrium assumptions. Specifically, a new nondilute solute transport equation is presented. Such nondilute equations are applicable to many fields including cryobiology where dilute solution conditions are not often met. An illustrative example is provided. Utilizing suitable transport equations that fit for two permeability coefficients, fits were as good as with the previous three-parameter model (which includes the reflection coefficient, sigma). There is less unexpected concentration dependence with the nondilute transport equations, suggesting that some of the unexpected concentration dependence of permeability is due to the use of inappropriate transport equations.

The promise of organ and tissue preservation to transform medicine

The ability to replace organs and tissues on demand could save or improve millions of lives each year globally and create public health benefits on par with curing cancer. Unmet needs for organ and tissue preservation place enormous logistical limitations on transplantation, regenerative medicine, drug discovery, and a variety of rapidly advancing areas spanning biomedicine. A growing coalition of researchers, clinicians, advocacy organizations, academic institutions, and other stakeholders has assembled to address the unmet need for preservation advances, outlining remaining challenges and identifying areas of underinvestment and untapped opportunities. Meanwhile, recent discoveries provide proofs of principle for breakthroughs in a family of research areas surrounding biopreservation. These developments indicate that a new paradigm, integrating multiple existing preservation approaches and new technologies that have flourished in the past 10 years, could transform preservation research. Capitalizing on these opportunities will require engagement across many research areas and stakeholder groups. A coordinated effort is needed to expedite preservation advances that can transform several areas of medicine and medical science.

Dimethyl sulfoxide toxicity kinetics in intact articular cartilage

Osteochondral defects can degenerate into osteoarthritis and currently there are no good treatment alternatives available to most Orthopaedic surgeons. Osteochondral allografting can restore damaged joint surfaces but its clinical use is limited by poor access to high quality tissue. Vitrification of osteochondral tissue would allow the banking of this tissue but requires high concentrations of cryoprotective agents. This study was designed to ascertain dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) toxicity kinetics to chondrocytes in situ after exposure to DMSO at different temperatures recorded as a function of time. Porcine osteochondral dowels were exposed to 1, 3, 5, and 6M DMSO at 4, 22, and 37°C for 0.5 min to 120 min. Chondrocyte recovery was determined by membrane integrity (Syto 13 and ethidium bromide) and mitochondrial (WST-1) assays. Results demonstrated that cell recovery was concentration, temperature and time dependent. At higher concentrations and temperatures, significant cell loss occurred within minutes. A rate constant calculated for chondrocyte death was dependent on temperature. 1 M DMSO appeared relatively non-toxic. This experiment established a method to examine systematically toxicity parameters for chondrocytes in situ and this data can be used to tailor vitrification protocols by limiting exposure temperature and time or lowering DMSO concentrations below toxic levels recorded.

Cryoprotective agent toxicity interactions in human articular chondrocytes.

BACKGROUND Vitrification is a method of cryopreservation by which cells and tissues can be preserved at low temperatures using cryoprotective agents (CPAs) at high concentrations (typically ≥6.0 M) to limit the harmful effects of ice crystals that can form during cooling processes. However, at these concentrations CPAs are significantly cytotoxic and an understanding of their toxicity characteristics and interactions is important. Therefore, single-CPA and multiple-CPA solutions were evaluated for their direct and indirect toxicities on chondrocytes. METHODS Chondrocytes were isolated from human articular cartilage samples and exposed to various single-CPA and multiple-CPA solutions of five common CPAs (dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), ethylene glycol (EG), propylene glycol (PG), glycerol (Gy) and formamide (Fm)) at both 6.0 and 8.1 M concentrations at 0 °C for 30 min. Chondrocyte survival was determined using a fluorescent cell membrane integrity assay. The data obtained was statistically analyzed and regression coefficients were used to represent the indirect toxicity effect which a specific combination of CPAs exerted on the final solutions toxicity. RESULTS Multiple-CPA solutions were significantly less toxic than single-CPA solutions (P<0.01). The indirect toxicity effects between CPAs were quantifiable using regression analysis. Cell survival rates of approximately 40% were obtained with the four-CPA combination solution DMSO-EG-Gy-Fm. In the multiple-CPA combinations, PG demonstrated the greatest degree of toxicity and its presence within a combination solution negated any benefits of using multiple lower concentration CPAs. CONCLUSIONS Multiple-CPA solutions are less cytotoxic than single-CPA solutions of the same total concentration. PG was the most toxic CPA when used in combinations. The highest chondrocyte survival rates were obtained with the 6.0 M DMSO-EG-Gy-Fm combination solution.

The effect of temperature on membrane hydraulic conductivity

The objective of this study was to use the temperature dependence of water permeability to suggest the physical mechanisms of water transport across membranes of osmotically slowly responding cells and to demonstrate that insight into water transport mechanisms in these cells may be gained from easily performed experiments using an electronic particle counter. Osmotic responses of V-79W Chinese hamster fibroblast cells were measured in hypertonic solutions at various temperatures and the membrane hydraulic conductivity was determined. The results were fit with the general Arrhenius equation with two free parameters, and also fit with two specific membrane models each having only one free parameter. Data from the literature including that for human bone marrow stem cells, hamster pancreatic islets, and bovine articular cartilage chondrocytes were also examined. The results indicated that the membrane models could be used in conjunction with measured permeability data at different temperatures to investigate the method of water movement across various cell membranes. This approach for slower responding cells challenges the current concept that the presence of aqueous pores is always accompanied by an osmotic water permeability value, P(f)>0.01 cm/s. The possibility of water transport through aqueous pores in lower-permeability cells is proposed.

Thermodynamic investigation of the barrier for heterogeneous nucleation on a fluid surface in comparison with a rigid surface.

When a vapor phase is in contact with a solid or nonvolatile fluid, under conditions where the vapor is thermodynamically metastable to condensation, a droplet may nucleate from the vapor either homogenously within the vapor phase, or heterogeneously at the solid or fluid substrate interface. The case where the droplet is thermodynamically favored to nucleate heterogeneously is the subject of this article. The heterogeneous nucleation of a sessile drop on a soft surface has been studied many times experimentally and theoretically. It has been observed experimentally that heterogeneous nucleation happens faster on a soft surface in comparison with a rigid surface. Here we use Gibbsian surface thermodynamics to provide a physical understanding for this observation. Due to the difficulties of considering soft-elastic surfaces, we demonstrate that by considering only the fluidity of a surface (i.e., by considering a fluid surface as an infinitely soft material and comparing a fluid surface with a rigid surface), thermodynamics will predict that heterogeneous nucleation is easier on soft surfaces compared with rigid surfaces. We first investigate the effect of contact angle on the barrier for heterogeneous nucleation on rigid substrates at constant vapor phase pressure. Then we find a lower energy barrier for heterogeneous nucleation at a fluid surface in comparison with heterogeneous nucleation at a rigid surface which explains the faster nucleation on soft surfaces compared with rigid surfaces. Finally we inspect the role of each contribution to the energy barrier.

A Biomechanical Triphasic Approach to the Transport of Nondilute Solutions in Articular Cartilage

Biomechanical models for biological tissues such as articular cartilage generally contain an ideal, dilute solution assumption. In this article, a biomechanical triphasic model of cartilage is described that includes nondilute treatment of concentrated solutions such as those applied in vitrification of biological tissues. The chemical potential equations of the triphasic model are modified and the transport equations are adjusted for the volume fraction and frictional coefficients of the solutes that are not negligible in such solutions. Four transport parameters, i.e., water permeability, solute permeability, diffusion coefficient of solute in solvent within the cartilage, and the cartilage stiffness modulus, are defined as four degrees of freedom for the model. Water and solute transport in cartilage were simulated using the model and predictions of average concentration increase and cartilage weight were fit to experimental data to obtain the values of the four transport parameters. As far as we know, this is the first study to formulate the solvent and solute transport equations of nondilute solutions in the cartilage matrix. It is shown that the values obtained for the transport parameters are within the ranges reported in the available literature, which confirms the proposed model approach.

Vitrification of intact human articular cartilage.

Articular cartilage injuries do not heal and large defects result in osteoarthritis with major personal and socioeconomic costs. Osteochondral transplantation is an effective treatment for large joint defects but its use is limited by the inability to store cartilage for long periods of time. Cryopreservation/vitrification is one method to enable banking of this tissue but decades of research have been unable to successfully preserve the tissue while maintaining cartilage on its bone base - a requirement for transplantation. To address this limitation, human knee articular cartilage from total knee arthroplasty patients and deceased donors was exposed to specified concentrations of 4 different cryoprotective agents for mathematically determined periods of time at lowering temperatures. After complete exposure, the cartilage was immersed in liquid nitrogen for up to 3 months. Cell viability was 75.4 ± 12.1% determined by membrane integrity stains and confirmed with a mitochondrial assay and pellet culture documented production of sulfated glycosaminoglycans and collagen II similar to controls. This report documents successful vitrification of intact human articular cartilage on its bone base making it possible to bank this tissue indefinitely.