9616195 Suppes Donor organs used for heart, liver, kidney, or other transplants have severely limited storage times. Typically, the operation must be performed within 24 to 48 hours for the best opportunity of success. The proposed research will perform fundamental research which could directly lead to a method for successfully storing or even freezing these donor organs at lower temperatures without loosing organ viability for transplants. These new storage methods would be a direct result of fundamental data of the impact of high pressure on tissue. The proposed research will investigate the impact of high pressures, rates of pressure changes, thermally induced freezing, and pressure induced freezing on the viability of red blood cells and bovine sperm. The proposed program should be considered as a Small Grant for Exploratory Research since little if any cryobiology has been performed at the proposed high pressures. The proposed funding is sufficient to determine if further investigation is warranted. ***
