BBC News is reporting that a research team at Montreal’s McGill University have successfully frozen whole organs without destroying their function. This will allow doctors to stockpile organs in a freezer for later transplantation, a possible solution to the growing problem of patients that die waiting for fresh transplant organs. While I’m in little danger of dying, I’ve been on a kidney transplant list for more than a year.
The organs used in the McGill research were rat ovaries, and while the frozen organs were less efficient after freezing, they were still functional. Researchers assume that freezing human organs will be somewhat more difficult because they are larger and more subject to freezer burn.
The BBC News report was based on an article in Nature: “First thawed transplant success.”
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