Characterizing Intracellular Ice Formation of Lymphoblasts Using Low-Temperature Raman Spectroscopy

Raman microspectroscopy was used to quantify freezing response of cells to various cooling rates and solution compositions. The distribution pattern of cytochrome c in individual cells was used as a measure of cell viability in the frozen state and this metric agreed well with the population-averaged viability and trypan blue staining experiments. Raman imaging of cells demonstrated that intracellular ice formation (IIF) was common and did not necessarily result in cell death. The amount of intracellular ice as well as ice crystal size played a role in determining whether or not ice inside the cell was a lethal event.

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