X-Message-Number: 21499
From: 
Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2003 12:12:46 EST
Subject: rabbit kidneys

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A couple of days ago Thomas Donaldson had questions about the degree of 
success in vitrifying rabbit kidneys.

Early this year I had the impression that around 50% viability of vitrified 
rabbit kidneys after autoreimplant had been achieved--very impressive, I 
thought, although not yet good enough for transplant purposes. But I learned 
this was not the case, and in fact (as of early this year), as I was told, 
there have been no successes in vitrifying rabbit kidneys. 

What they have done is load and unload kidneys with a "vitrifiable 
concentration" of perfusate, with 100% survival. In other words, zero 
toxicity--but not vitrification, and not at temperatures even as low as that 
of dry ice.

After these many years--much of the time with financial and administrative 
support of major institutions such as the Red Cross and the Navy--success is 
still elusive, but gains have been made and no doubt eventually the goal will 
be achieved. I hope it's soon--even though I also hope that Dr. Pichugin's 
work bears fruit sooner.

For readers here, the point is that you must take current "vitrification" 
claims with several grains of salt. The human brain is much larger and much 
more complicated than a rabbit kidney, and rabbit kidneys have not yet been 
vitrified successfully. The notion that anybody's current procedures produce 
"vitrification" in human patients can only have the most limited degree of 
credibility, and any claims made should be qualified much more clearly than 
they have been.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
www.cryonics.org

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