Processing and Storage of Viable Human Tissues

Abstract

Organ-Transplantation, edited by Felix Largiader, 220 pp, 48 illus, 49 marks, $12.25, Stuttgart: Georg Thieme Verlag, 1966. Tissue Grafting and Radiation, by H. S. Micklem and John F. Loutit, with an appendix by Charles E. Ford (prepared under the direction of the American Institute of Biological Sciences for the Division of Technical Information, US Atomic Energy Commission), 288 pp, with illus, $7, New York and London: Academic Press, Inc., 1966. Processing and Storage of Viable Human Tissues is an excellent hand book, with good illustrations and text, offering practical methods and recipes for tissue preservation. There is a good section on cold preservation of tissues, nutrient storage media, variations in icecrystal formation and protective freezing of tissues with glycerol and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). No mention is made of toxicity of glycerol at temperatures above freezing, or of possible hepatotoxicity of DMSO, or of the protective action of protein, usually albumin,