Is any work being done to perfect suspended animation through cryopreservation ?
Although vitrification eliminates ice crystals, cryopreservation still entails biochemical and other unknown forms of damage that stands in the way of rewarming with full viability. 21st Century Medicine (21CM) is working to reversibly cryopreserve kidneys. 21CM has suceeded in cryopreserving rabbit kidney to -135°C and transplanting those kidneys back into rabbits with complete functionality. If the same procedure can be applied to enough organs − ultimately the whole body − suspended animation will become a reality. The Cryonics Institute (CI) employs a full-time cryobiologist whose primary focus is to develop vitrification and apply the procedure to cryonics patients. Suspended Animation, Inc. also has a research program dedicated to improving cryopreservation techniques and developing whole body vitrification. Even when kidneys and brains have been reversibly cryopreserved, whole body suspended animation would require reversible cryopreservation of all organs − including bones and
Although vitrification eliminates ice crystals, cryopreservation still entails biochemical and other unknown forms of damage that stands in the way of rewarming with full viability. 21st Century Medicine (21CM) is working to reversibly cryopreserve kidneys. 21CM has suceeded in cryopreserving rabbit kidney to −135ºC and transplanting those kidneys back into rabbits with complete functionality that was able to sustain the rabbit indefinitely as the sole functioning kidney [ORGANOGENESIS; Fahy,GM; 5(3):167-175 (2009)]. Brains are easier to vitrify than kidneys, and a rabbit brain has been vitrified with no ice formation [ANNALS OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES; 1019:559 (2004)]. Although a whole mammal has not yet been cryopreserved to cryogenic temperatures and revived, the progress of science is moving in that direction.
