Bioimpedance monitoring for cryopreservation process control

This paper analyses the use of Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) to efficiently monitor cryoprotectant concentrations in cryopreservation protocols. The proposed technique can improve methods such as Liquidus Tracking (LT), allowing vitrification without exposing tissues to damaging concentrations of cryoprotectant at relatively high temperatures, and avoiding rapid temperature changes. This work is focused to continuous monitoring of cryoprotectant concentrations by detecting changes in electrical impedance. These variations, derived from cryoprotectant perfusion inside cells and tissues, can be efficiently measure by using of EIS. Finite element simulation performed with COMSOL Multiphysics software was used to analyse the frequency response of a two-electrode system to several concentrations of Me2SO, perfused into 3T3 fibroblasts and monolayers of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs), fundamental in tissue-based therapeutics.