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A new technique has been developed to freeze brain tissue without damaging it
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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A team of medical researchers from the National Children's Medical Center, Children's Hospital of Fudan University in China have developed a technique to freeze and thaw brain tissue without damaging it.
In their study, published in the journal Cell Reports Methods, the team tested the effects of bathing brain organoids in various chemical compounds before freezing them using liquid nitrogen.
Previous studies have shown that no matter how quickly brain tissue is frozen, the freezing and thawing process always causes tissue damage. This made the researchers' work more difficult, as the studies had to be conducted immediately after the tissue sample was obtained. In the new study, the Chinese team found a way around this problem by soaking the tissue in a special solution before freezing.
The work involved dipping or soaking brain organoids (brain tissue grown from stem cells) in various compounds, then freezing and thawing them to assess the tissue's health. After many attempts, they found a combination of solutions that worked best - a mixture of ethylene glycol, methylcellulose DMSO and Y27632. They called the mixture MEDY.
The research team then tested MEDY under a variety of conditions to assess how well it prevented freeze damage. The conditions included changing variables such as the age of the organoids before freezing and how long they were soaked in the MEDY solution. They then allowed the organoids to continue growing after thawing for up to 150 days.
The researchers found little difference between organoids that were frozen and those that were not, even if they were frozen for up to 18 months.
As a final test, the research team applied their technique to a sample of brain tissue taken from a living patient and found that it worked just as well.
The research team suggests that their technique should allow researchers to store brain tissue samples on a scale large enough to conduct new types of research on the brain and nervous system.