X-Message-Number: 5066
From:  (Brian Wowk)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Re: Frozen Dog
Date: 28 Oct 95 03:39:54 GMT
Message-ID: <>
References: <46hcpg$> <>

In <46pe77$> Yannis <"yannis"@yannis.seanet,com> writes:

>Isn't the sperm at sperm banks kept frozen and then thawed for 
>use? Why is it that sperm stays viable and not other organs or
>organisms?

	Good question.  Isolated cells, as a rule, are easy to 
cryopreserve.  During slow cooling, ice crystals form between
cells (not inside cells as many people erroneously believe).
These crystals cause much more damage to the highly-organized
arrangements of cells in organs than to free-floating cells
like sperm.  That, in very simple terms, is the answer to your 
question.   

---Brian Wowk     


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