Development of high pressure freezing for cryopreservation for cells and tissues

March 25, 2026

A study group from the University of Tokyo and the RIKEN CSRS used a high-pressure freezer (Leica EM ICE), which is typically used to prepare samples for electron microscopy, to preserve live cells for the first time. They succeeded in cryopreserving cell monolayers and spheroids, which were previously considered difficult to preserve using conventional freezing methods such as immersion in liquid nitrogen, by freezing cells and tissues instantaneously in just a few milliseconds (one millisecond is one-thousandth of a second) under a pressure approximately 2,000 times that of atmospheric pressure. The cells and tissues had a very high survival rate and very high cell activity after thawing, demonstrating the effectiveness of high pressure freezing for cryopreservation.

The high pressure freezing for cryopreservation has novelty in that it has a considerably higher survival rate after thawing compared with that reported in preceding studies, it allows for subsequent stable cultivation, and it has no need to use cryoprotectants such as DMSO that is highly toxic. The outcome of this study is expected to be useful in fundamental research areas, such as regenerative medicine, the biotechnology industry, and bioengineering, through preservation of small cellular tissues including organoids.

 

Original article

PNAS Nexus　doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag065

F. Song, M. Sato, Y. Toyama, T. Ishikawa, F. Tokito, T. Katsuda, K. Toyooka, Y. Sakai, M. Nishikawa,

"A proof-of-concept study on high pressure freezing for cryopreservation".

Contact

Kiminori Toyooka
Senior Technical Scientist
Mass Spectrometry and Microscopy Unit