Slow cooling leads to a passive dehydration of cells, whereas rehydration during warming reflects the active regain of functionality. The ability to modulate such an energy demanding process could be instrumental in optimizing the cryo-arrest of living systems. In the present study, various levels of hypertonic stress were used to disturb the water content of cells and to define the energy profiles of aquaporins and (Na+ conducting) cation channels during rehydration. Na+ import was found to be the rate-limiting step in water restoration, whereas aquaporins merely played a permissive role. Indeed, regulated Na+ import was increased 2-fold following cryo-arrests, thus facilitating the osmotic rehydration of cells. Freezing temperatures increased cell viscosity with a remarkable hysteresis and viscosity was a trigger of cation channels. The peptide hormone vasopressin was a further activator of channels, increasing the viability of post-cryo cells considerably. Hence, the hormone opens the path for a novel class of cryo-protectants with an intrinsic biological activity.

We present a novel noninvasive technology for quality control in biobanking. We implemented a contactless optical in situ method with a remote detection unit. The method detects physical and chemical changes by emission spectroscopy. In the present study, ice formation in a vitrified sample is revealed by Raman scattering. The technology allows us to monitor sample quality during cold storage and to assess the sample state after preservation, storage, or transport without the need for thawing.

While therapeutic cell transplantations using progenitor cells are increasingly evolving towards phase I and II clinical trials and chemically defined cell culture is established, standardization in biobanking is still in the stage of infancy. In this study, the EU FP6-funded CRYSTAL (CRYo-banking of Stem cells for human Therapeutic AppLication) consortium aimed to validate novel Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to perform and validate xeno-free and chemically defined cryopreservation of human progenitor cells and to reduce the amount of the potentially toxic cryoprotectant additive (CPA) dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). To achieve this goal, three human adult progenitor and stem cell populations—umbilical cord blood (UCB)-derived erythroid cells (UCB-ECs), UCB-derived endothelial colony forming cells (UCB-ECFCs), and adipose tissue (AT)-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (AT-MSCs)—were cryopreserved in chemically defined medium supplemented with 10% or 5% DMSO. Cell recovery, cell repopulation, and functionality were evaluated postthaw in comparison to cryopreservation in standard fetal bovine serum (FBS)-containing freezing medium. Even with a reduction of the DMSO CPA to 5%, postthaw cell count and viability assays indicated no overall significant difference versus standard cryomedium. Additionally, to compare cellular morphology/membrane integrity and ice crystal formation during cryopreservation, multiphoton laser-scanning cryomicroscopy (cryo-MPLSM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used. Neither cryo-MPLSM nor SEM indicated differences in membrane integrity for the tested cell populations under various conditions. Moreover, no influence was observed on functional properties of the cells following cryopreservation in chemically defined freezing medium, except for UCB-ECs, which showed a significantly reduced differentiation capacity after cryopreservation in chemically defined medium supplemented with 5% DMSO. In summary, these results demonstrate the feasibility and robustness of standardized xeno-free cryopreservation of different human progenitor cells and encourage their use even more in the field of tissue-engineering and regenerative medicine.

If no fresh skin samples can be obtained or used, it is important for research and industries to have models and stored tissue samples as close to the native state as possible at disposal. One way to preserve tissues for a longer timeframe is to use deep freezing cryo-techniques. Unfortunately much damage can be induced during the cooling and the thawing processes like disruption of cells and extra-cellular matrices due to the formation of ice crystals. This could lead to a disturbance of the united cell structure up to the point of a loss of cell viability. Two-photon microscopy is able to gather information about cells and tissue components via excitation of the autofluorescence deep inside the sample with a high resolution in both, frozen and thawed states. It is possible to monitor the samples before and after and, important, observe events during the freezing process like the formation of ice crystals.To determine the state of skin tissues after slow rate freezing and the quick process of vitrification, the samples were examined with two-photon microscopy. To establish an optimized freezing-protocol for skin tissues, morphological changes, changes in autofluorescence of endogenous fluorophores (NADH, keratin, flavins, elastin) or changes in second harmonic generation of collagen fibres could provide information about the quality of the used freezing parameters and protective additives and lead to an optimized freezing-protocol with a new set of parameters to obtain mostly intact tissue samples. Multiphoton microscopy has been established as a useful tool for optical in situ quality control of frozen tissues.

In this study we demonstrate a new noninvasive imaging method to monitor freezing processes in biological samples and to investigate life in the frozen state. It combines a laser scanning microscope with a computer-controlled cryostage. Nearinfrared (NIR) femtosecond laser pulses evoke the fluorescence of endogenous fluorophores and fluorescent labels due to multiphoton absorption.The inherent optical nonlinearity of multiphoton absorption allows 3D fluorescence imaging for optical tomography of frozen biological material in-situ. As an example for functional imaging we use fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) to create images with chemical and physical contrast.

Monitoring the functional status of cryo-preserved cells and tissue in-situ, i.e. in the frozen state, might allow for optimal adjustment of preservation conditions and might provide the information necessary to predict a functionality recovery rate. Here, an imaging approach with compositional sensitivity seems favourable. In our approach we use multiphoton microscopy in combination with fluorescence lifetime imaging to investigate cells, human and plant tissue at cryogenic conditions. By the non-linearity of multiphoton excitation we largely suppress image distortions attributed to scattering of incoming light. Only where the intensity of the pulsed near-infrared laser beam is sufficiently large, significant fluorescence is excited. This allows reaching penetration depth in ice comparable to the liquid state. As additional information we use the fluorescence decay to assign compositional entities. Results obtained on cells and tissues are discussed with respect to temperature dependencies and the related use for applications.