Single-Mode Electromagnetic Resonance Rewarming for the Cryopreservation of Samples with Large Volumes: A Numerical and Experimental Study.

Abstract

Rapid and uniform rewarming has been proved to be beneficial, and sometimes indispensable for the survival of cryopreserved biomaterials, inhibiting ice-recrystallization-devitrification and thermal stress-induced fracture (especially in large samples). To date, the convective water bath remains the gold standard rewarming method for small samples in the clinical settings, but it failed in the large samples (e.g., cryopreserved tissues and organs) due to damage caused by the slow and nonuniform heating. A single-mode electromagnetic resonance (SMER) system was developed to achieve ultrafast and uniform rewarming for large samples. In this study, we investigated the heating effects of the SMER system and compared the heating performance with water bath and air warming. A numerical model was established to further analyze the temperature change and distribution at different time points during the rewarming process. Overall, the SMER system achieved rapid heating at 331.63 ± 8.59°C min^-1 while limiting the maximum thermal gradient to <9°C min^-1, significantly better than the other two warming methods. The experimental results were highly consistent, indicating SMER is a promising rewarming technology for the successful cryopreservation of large biosamples.