Jornal de Neurologia Clínica e Neurocirurgia

Sciatic Nerve Cryo-Conservation and Superconductor-Like Behavior

Abstract

Hanini A, Azzouz A, Bouslama Z, Saili L, Rejeb A, Ben Salem M, Sakly M, Tliba S and Abdelmelek H

The purpose of the present study was to determine the ability of nerve cryopreservation approaches, slow freezing, to preserve electric properties of sciatic nerves and histological structure. In the present manuscript, the electric resistivity (R) at different temperatures (T) was studied in frog sciatic nerve in two approaches i) nerve freezing between 300 K to 200 K and ii) nerve warming from 200 K to 300 K. Firstly, when the electrical contacts were leaned into frog sciatic nerve we note a semi-conductor behavior and a striking decrease of nerve resistivity at 252 K showing a super conductor-like behavior. Secondly, when electrical contacts were embedded to the nerve we note a metallic behavior and a fall of resistivity was shown at 252 K indicating a superconductor-like behavior. In addition, findings illustrate the importance of electric and histological studies to examine cryo-sensitivity of nerve.