X-Message-Number: 2513
From: Tim Freeman <>
Subject: CRYONICS Perfusing Sheep Brains
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 12:48:47 EST

Some time back, the Immortalist ran an article where the Cryonics
Institute did some experiments on sheep brains.  They perfused them,
froze them to liquid nitrogen temperatures, rewarmed them, and then
perfused them again.  They claimed that they observed few leaks and
little swelling, which they took as evidence that the circulatory
system was not very much damaged by this process.

Can anyone say whether the evidence supports the conclusion?  

On the other hand, there was a story in Cryonics magazine some time
back saying that there is microphotographic evidence that crystals do
form after perfusion and freezing using the procedure used by
Alcor/Cryovita/Biopreservation.  The Immortalist article suggested
that Alcor should disclose exactly how their perfusate is made, so
experiments comparable to what was done on the sheep brains can be
done with Alcor's perfusate to see if the results are similar.

Can anyone with experience with Alcor's/Cryovita's/Biopreservation's
perfusate say what the outcome of a comparable experiment would be?
Would the experiment be worth doing, were it not prohibited by Alcor's
current zoning situation?

I'm omitting some references (to one Immortalist article and one
Cryonics article) that I'll dig up if anyone really wants me to.
However, I suspect that anyone who could answer my questions has
already read the articles I'm alluding to, so maybe I'll be saved the
trouble.  I also apologize for any confusions created by me getting
the names of the organizations confused, or my failure to take into
account improvements made to the perfusate solutions since the
articles I'm talking about were written.  Moving targets are hard to
hit...

Tim Freeman

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