Storage and maintenance of valuable genotypes of animal model species as live animal lines would be wholly impractical. However, traditional cryopreservation techniques will be soon found to be inefficient for providing economic approach for cryopreservation of cells and tissues from millions of new animal models being developed. Efficient cryopreservation of clinically valuable tissues, including cornea tissues, ovarian cortical strips, skins, blood vessels, and many others will invaluably benefit corresponding transplantation technology and basic biomedical research using animal model or human tissues. Our overall goal is to develop an ultra-fast cooling device (cooling rate >106 K/min) to achieve vitrification of thin (approximately 100-200 microns) tissues or samples without or with very low concentration of permeating cryoprotectants. We will achieve this by producing the prototype of an ultra-fast cooling device with an application of cutting-edge engineering techniques including cryogenic thin film evaporation and jet impingement cooling. To improve its practical efficiency, the device will be designed as a close operating system that prevents samples from direct contact with liquid nitrogen or its vapor. To achieve those goals, the plan for phase I periods is proposed: 1) design a novel ultra-fast cooling device combining thin film evaporation and jet impingement cooling techniques, determine optimal design parameters for subsystems; 2) produce the device and test its thermal efficiency; and 3) the tested device will be used for porcine and human corneal tissue cryopreservation, and the cryopreserved efficiency will be assessed according to biochemical and histological tests on the post-thaw tissues. At the end of Phase I, the proposed device will be produced under appropriate engineering design control and validated through biological tests.

R43OD020163

2015-07-15

2017-01-14