QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE CHANGES IN THE USE OF CRYO-TECHNOLOGY DURING THE 70-YEAR HISTORY OF THE TISSUE BANK, UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL HRADEC KRALOVE
Abstrakt
The authors review the changes in the use of cryotechnology during the 70-year history of the Tissue Bank. The Tissue Bank of the University Hospital Hradec Králové was established by prof.
Rudolf Klen, M.D., DSc. in 1952. At the beginning of its activity hypothermic preservation and freezing without cryoprotection was used for storage of solid tissue grafts such as corneas, skin bone and cartilage.
Introduction of cryo-technology was related to the start of the programme of cryopreservation of tissue culture cells at the end of 60's of the last century. Controlled rate freezing in the vapour phase of liquid nitrogen and storage in small biological liquid nitrogen containers (STS Ricany, Czechoslovakia) was used.
The use of cryo-technology expanded after the start of the programme of the haematopoietic progenitor cell (HPC) transplantation in 1989. The Bank was equipped with the programmable freezer (Planer Biomed, UK) and with the biological liquid nitrogen container BK 200 A (Ferox, Decin).
This vessel was used for storage of small metal containers of own construction (VUPCHT, Hradec Kralove, Czechoslovakia) with cryopreserved HPC in the volume of 120 mL In the years 1992-94 the metal containers were replaced by disposable plastic bags. The new cryo-storage facility opened in 2002 was equipped with large biological containers with automatic filling (MVE, USA), continuous recording of temperature and the parameters of the environment - oxygen level, temperature, relative humidity.
Since that time the consumption of liquid nitrogen has been increasing as well as the number of stored cryopreserved HPC units.