PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kankan Qin
AU  - Corentin Eschenbrenner
AU  - Felix Ginot
AU  - Dmytro Dedovets
AU  - Thibaud Coradin
AU  - Sylvain Deville
AU  - Francisco M. Fernandes
TI  - Unveiling cells’ local environment during cryopreservation by correlative <em>in situ</em> spatial and thermal analyses
AID  - 10.1101/2020.04.21.052696
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.04.21.052696
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/23/2020.04.21.052696.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/23/2020.04.21.052696.full
AB  - Cryopreservation is the only fully established procedure to extend the lifespan of living cells and tissues, a key to activities spanning from fundamental biology to clinical practice. Despite its prevalence and impact, central aspects of cryopreservation, such as the cell’s physico-chemical environment during freezing, remain elusive. Here we address that question by coupling in situ microscopic directional freezing to visualize cells and their surroundings during freezing with the freezing medium phase diagram. We extract the freezing medium spatial distribution in cryopreservation, providing a tool to describe the cell vicinity at any point during freezing. We show that two major events define the cells’ local environment over time: the interaction with the moving ice front and with the vitreous moving front – a term we introduce here. Our correlative strategy may be applied to cells relevant in clinical research and practice, and help designing new cryoprotective media based on local physico-chemical cues.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.