Science

Frozen human brain tissue works perfectly when thawed 18 months later

Scientists in China have developed a new chemical mix that can allow brain tissue to be frozen and thawed without damage
Scientists in China have developed a new chemical mix that can allow brain tissue to be frozen and thawed without damage

In good news for future animation figureheads, there might be a new way to revive frozen brains without damaging them. Scientists in China have developed a new chemical concoction that lets brain tissue function again after being frozen.

Freezing is effective at keeping organic material from decomposing, but it still causes damage. As the water inside turns to ice, the crystals tear apart the cells. That’s why frozen meat or fruit goes a bit mushy after it’s defrosted – but a bigger problem is that it also happens with organs or tissues chilled for transplant or research.

For the new study, scientists at Fudan University in China experimented with various chemical compounds to see which ones might work to preserve living brain tissue during freezing. They started by testing out promising chemicals on brain organoids – small, lab-grown lumps of brain tissue that develop into different types of related cells.

The organoids were submerged in the various chemicals, then frozen in liquid nitrogen for 24 hours. Then they were quickly defrosted in warm water, and checked for function, growth and signs of cellular damage over time. The chemicals that protected the mini-brains the best then went through to the next round, which involved trying various combinations in similar freezing and defrosting tests.

Eventually, the researchers arrived at the most promising mixture, which they called MEDY, after the four main ingredients: methylcellulose, ethylene glycol, DMSO and Y27632. The team grew mini-brains to different ages, from four weeks to more than three months, froze them in MEDY, thawed them out, then continued monitoring them for a few weeks after.

Intriguingly, brain organoids preserved in MEDY showed similar growth and function patterns to those that had never been frozen. Incredibly, one batch was frozen in MEDY for as long as 18 months, and still showed similar protections against damage after thawing.

The team also froze samples of living brain tissue taken from a human epilepsy patient, and found that MEDY protected them from damage. The process didn’t disrupt the structure of the brain cells, and even preserved the pathologies of epilepsy – that’s important, because it means samples can be frozen for later study or analysis without damage from the freezing process confusing the results.

The most immediate impacts for the new freezing tech are that it allows brain organoids and samples to be stored longer for biomedical research, but eventually it could be applied to whole brains, and other tissues.

The research was published in the journal Cell Reports Methods.

Source: Fudan University via New Scientist

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8 comments
Daishi
In the context of the crazy power draw needed for AI workloads it's worth noting that the human brain only uses about 20 watts of power to operate. We may be starting to achieve similar ability with massive supercomputers but we are still nowhere close to the level of energy efficiency. If we work out the details of something like Neuralink we could potentially use lab grown brain tissue for some low powered compute applications. The tech to make that possible is not that far away.
TechGazer
One problem I see is that using the frozen samples for research uses the assumption that they fully understand all the effects of this process, which they don't, because there are still aspects of brain cell functioning that are yet to be discovered. This could be a very useful tool for some studies, but lead to misleading results if misapplied or using invalid assumptions.
Jinpa
And they prove this how? Because when thawed it voted for Xi?
Terrified Citizen
Whaat I find both hilarious and absolutely terrifying at the same about Daishi’s comment is that (likely unintentionally) it perfectly summarizes the entire premise of The Matrix, where they collect and harvest the lifeless bodies of citizens and utilize them to power their brains as the most efficient means of generating their ultra powerful supercomputer as feeding our human bodies was the most efficient method of generating immense computational power. With the rise in AI and constant comparisons with the human brain, and obvious issues with power consumption it’s not going to be long before someone in a not so lawful country actually begins down this nightmare path!
TomLeeM
I guess this shows that a 'brain freeze' isn't always a bad thing?
Ranscapture
@daishi, we have had a billion years to refine our power usage. Even then, 20 watts is difficult to generate without chemical reactions. Look at how far we’ve come in even the last 10 years with computer power vs watts.
markhahn
really unfortunate to claim these are brains, or even that simple techniques like this can be applied to real (whole) brains.

organoids are basically just tiny tissue samples. and the duration is basically irrelevant (that's kind of what freezing means).
Rusty
I'm guessing this brain tissue came from someone in the federal government?
Oh wait...they have no brains. It's why we are 30 trillion in debt.