Blood storage | Stirling Cryogenics
Blood storage and stem cell storage
Cord blood and stem cells are especially suited for use in gene therapy. These are not only used as an alternative to bone marrow transplantation to treat a variety of blood diseases and cancers but research is also conducted to treat other diseases such as heart disease, stroke, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Blood storage as well as stem cell storage is a process where cells, blood or whole tissues are preserved by cooling to low sub-zero temperatures, such as (typically) 77K or −196°C (the boiling point of liquid nitrogen). At temperatures below -130ºC biological activity ceases and storing at these temperatures is necessary to preserve the material unaltered. Moreover the inert capabilities of nitrogen help prevent deterioration of quality of biological material.
A reliable supply of liquid nitrogen is of vital importance for biological storage. Years of work and investment could be totally wasted should the content of a cryogenic vessel perish due to a lack of availability of liquid nitrogen. Hence, it is important to consider and organize liquid nitrogen availability in a reliable way. The selected method will dictate, to a large extent, the needed equipment.
Basically there is a choice between receiving bulk liquid nitrogen from industrial gas suppliers and producing liquid nitrogen on-site. The bulk-supplier option is often used in countries with good infrastructures. The obvious advantage is that no liquid nitrogen producing equipment is required in the storage facility itself. The disadvantage is that this option relies upon continuous availability of transportation resources and infrastructure.
Before adopting one of the above options you should carefully consider the possibilities and the guaranteed availability of liquid nitrogen on site to meet requirements of short notice availability of the required material.
For reasons of reliable uninterrupted liquid nitrogen supply the option of producing on-site is strongly recommended for facilities where bulk supply cannot be absolutely guaranteed. Many centers in industrialized countries invest in a liquid nitrogen generating plant as a additional source of supply in case of a supply emergency such as strikes, natural catastrophies, etc.
Products
For use in applications as described the following Stirling Cryogenics products may be considered: