Freezing of medical tissue and cells generally requires the addition of cryopreservatives,although the added compounds can maintain undesired effects in subsequent applications. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, British scientists report on the synthesis of a block copolymer hydrogel, and which not only facilitates the cryoprotection of red blood cells,but also serves as a suitable matrix for further tissue engineering. This points to an attractive one-pot solution for whole blood cryopreservation and tissue-engineering applications.
Source: phys.org