Functional studies on human veins after storage at--190 degrees C.

Human saphenous veins were immersed in foetal calf serum containing 1.8 M dimethylsulphoxide, slowly frozen to -70 degrees C and stored in liquid nitrogen (-190 degrees C). Comparative in vitro studies on helical strips from unfrozen and frozen and thawed veins revealed that after thawing of frozen stored veins the contractile force development was unchanged, and the evidence suggested that the monoamine oxidase activity was unimpaired. There was a good correlation between the pD2 values of various 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor agonists and the blocking activities of various antagonists tested against 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and noradrenaline on unfrozen and frozen and thawed veins. It is suggested that cryopreservation is a useful technique for storing human veins for pharmacological studies.