Cell dehydration during tissue freezing interpreted as Bradley isotherm desorption of structured cell water.

Abstract

Tissue freezing without tissue death commonly shows ice formation in water outside but not inside of the cells. This observation conflicts with the expectation derived from the classical picture of the cell as a bag of liquid water with equal osmotic pressures and therefore equal depression of freezing points on both sides of the cell membrane. However, if intracellular water is structured in the form of multiple polarized layers adsorbed on cell proteins in accord with the Bradley isotherm, the prediction of theory is in harmony with experimental data.