Overview
- Researchers at FAU Erlangen‑Nuremberg froze mouse hippocampal tissue for up to a week and restored neural activity after thawing.
- Vitrification protected the tissue by swapping in cryoprotective chemicals and cooling so fast that water could not form ice crystals.
- Thawed slices produced electrical signals and showed long‑term potentiation, the synapse‑strengthening process linked to learning.
- In slices cut from whole preserved brains, circuits stayed intact but recovery differed by cell type and lasted about 10–15 hours.
- The approach could let hospitals save brain tissue removed in epilepsy surgery for later study, and the team plans tests on human samples and other organs.