Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

The big freeze may be over: a contracting universe for cryopreservation?

Subjects

Abstract

According to current cosmological theory, the universe will continue to expand indefinitely. If so, it should cool eventually reaching temperatures too cold to sustain life. This theory is commonly referred to as heat-death or the big freeze. Putting aside this potentially unpleasant scenario, unlikely in the lifetime of current readers (about 10 × E + 2500 years from now), freezing, in contrast, has played an important role in hematopoietic cell autotransplants for disease such as plasma cell myeloma and lymphomas. Let us consider how.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Purchase on Springer Link

Instant access to full article PDF

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Debelak-Fehir KM, Catchatourian R, Epstein RB. Hemopoietic colony forming units in fresh and cryopreserved peripheral blood cells of canines and man. Exp Hematol. 1975;3:109–16.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Epstein RB, Sarpel SC. Processing of peripheral blood stem cells for transplantation. Exp Hematol. 1979;7(Suppl 5):125–34.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Fliedner TM, Calvo W, Körbling M, Nothdurft W, Pflieger H, Ross W. Collection, storage and transfusion of blood stem cells for the treatment of hemopoietic failure. Blood Cells. 1979;5:313–28.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Storb R, Graham TC, Epstein RB, Sale GE, Thomas ED. Demonstration of hemopoietic stem cells in the peripheral blood of baboons by cross circulation. Blood. 1977;50:537–42.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Gough NM, Gough J, Metcalf D, Kelso A, Grail D, Nicola NA, Burgess AW, et al. Molecular cloning of cDNA encoding a murine haematopoietic growth regulator, granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor. Nature. 1884;309:763–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Gale RP, Vorobiov A. First use of myeloid colony-stimulating factors in humans (letter to the editor). Bone Marrow Transplant. 2013;48:1358.

  7. Gale RP, Lazarus H. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, or would it?. Bone Marrow Transplant. 2013;48:881–3.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Polge C. Low-temperature storage of mammalian spermatozoa. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1957;147:498–508.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Mazur P. Stopping biological time. The freezing of living cells. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1988;541:514–31.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Ruiz-Argüelles GJ, Ruiz-Argüelles A, Pérez-Romano B, Marín-López A, Delgado-Lamas JL. Non-cryopreserved peripheral blood stem cells autotransplants for hematological malignancies can be performed entirely on an outpatient basis. Am J Hematol. 1998;58:161–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Karduss-Urueta A, Ruiz-Arguelles GJ, Perez R, Ruiz-Delgado GJ, Cardona AM, Labastida-Mercado N, et al. Cell-freezing devices are not strictly needed to start an autologous hematopoietic transplantation program: non-cryopreserved peripheral blood stem cells can be used to restore hematopoiesis after high dose chemotherapy: a multicenter experience in 268 autografts in patients with multiple myeloma or lymphoma. Study on behalf of the Latin-American Bone Marrow Transplantation Group (LABMT). Blood. 2014;124:849.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Ruiz-Argüelles GJ, Steensma DP. Staunching the rising costs of haematological health care. Lancet Haematol. 2016;3:10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert Peter Gale.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

None.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gale, R.P., Ruiz-Argüelles, G.J. The big freeze may be over: a contracting universe for cryopreservation?. Bone Marrow Transplant 53, 947–948 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-018-0119-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-018-0119-3

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links