Cryopreservation in Tissue Engineering: Challenges & Prospects

This paper describes the prospects and challenges of cry preservation of tissue and tissue engineered products for their application to tissue repair and regeneration. The various aspects of cry preservation include optimization of cell specific freezing parameters such as cooling rate, type and concentration of cry oprotective agents (CPA), media, treatment methods, warming and thawing for the preservation of tissue and tissue engineered products. The key issues related to the cry preservation of tissue engineered constructs have been addressed explaining the occurrence of physicochemical and biophysical phenomena during cry preservation, heat and mass transfer limitation and effect of large size of constructs on toxicity and cell viability. It has been described the effect of ice-forming and ice-free cry preservation on cell viability, control of ice crystal formation by anti-freezing agent and cry preservation equipments. A brief of ongoing research on cry preservation of MNCs containing hematopoietic stems cells isolated from cord blood has also been presented.