Freezing the DNA?

[ODorDO]

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Hi everyone,

I have this really easy question and I just cant figure it out. I was in my bio class the other day, the professor was talkin about how you can freeze a stem cell under -40C and store it for years and use it when you need it. Why doesnt this cell die in that condition? I mean we put our foods inside of a freezer just to keep microbes from growing on our foods... can anyone please explain the logic to me?

 

[PiBond]

Hi everyone,

I have this really easy question and I just cant figure it out. I was in my bio class the other day, the professor was talkin about how you can freeze a stem cell under -40C and store it for years and use it when you need it. Why doesnt this cell die in that condition? I mean we put our foods inside of a freezer just to keep microbes from growing on our foods... can anyone please explain the logic to me?

When they say "frozen" it's just referring to a way to store the cells for future use. The organelles and molecules are not actually frozen in place (they're not crystallized). In order to completely stop the molecules in cells from vibrating you would need to freeze them at absolute zero (-273 Celsius) which is way below -40C

 

[BennieBlanco]

Hi everyone,

I have this really easy question and I just cant figure it out. I was in my bio class the other day, the professor was talkin about how you can freeze a stem cell under -40C and store it for years and use it when you need it. Why doesnt this cell die in that condition? I mean we put our foods inside of a freezer just to keep microbes from growing on our foods... can anyone please explain the logic to me?

What pi bond said.

Plus, cells die from what? As cells age and keep dividing their lifetime shortens. If a cell isn't active it can theoretically exist a very long time.

Wear and tear = aging --> death

If telomeres become too short, they will potentially unfold from their presumed closed structure. It is thought that the cell detects this uncapping as DNA damage and will enter cellular senescence, growth arrest or apoptosis

 

[RogueUnicorn]

the freezing process is, if i know this correctly, not exactly like throwing pizza in the freezer... there are glycerol buffers and such, and you can't freeze-thaw indefinitely

 

[Ttan]

When they say "frozen" it's just referring to a way to store the cells for future use. The organelles and molecules are not actually frozen in place (they're not crystallized). In order to completely stop the molecules in cells from vibrating you would need to freeze them at absolute zero (-273 Celsius) which is way below -40C

And you know what happens then, when entrophy is halted. The butterfly effect, chain reaction of freezing. Heheh only place youll see DNA "frozen" (in time) is possibly in an old episode of star trek.

 

[boaz]

Hi everyone,

I have this really easy question and I just cant figure it out. I was in my bio class the other day, the professor was talkin about how you can freeze a stem cell under -40C and store it for years and use it when you need it. Why doesnt this cell die in that condition? I mean we put our foods inside of a freezer just to keep microbes from growing on our foods... can anyone please explain the logic to me?

The freezer that we have in our kitchens will kill human stem cells as well as to microbes. When your prof was talking about freezing stem cells he was referring to cryopreservation, a special freezing procedure that protects cells from damage. It involves the use of liquid nitrogen among other things.

 

[wantVCUdental]

the freezing process is, if i know this correctly, not exactly like throwing pizza in the freezer... there are glycerol buffers and such, and you can't freeze-thaw indefinitely

Yes, you use glycerol in the freezing process, it's like when you make competent cells, you add glycerol and put them in the -70 degree so you can use them later.

 

[ODorDO]

Thank you guys for responding! Cryopreservation is the word