A biologist's view of the relevance of thermodynamics and physical chemistry to cryobiology.

Thermodynamics and physical chemistry have played powerful roles the past 45years in interpreting cryobiological problems and in predicting cryobiological outcomes. The author has been guided by a few core principles in using these concepts and tools and this paper discusses these core principles. They are (1) the importance of chemical potentials and of the difference between the chemical potentials of water and solutes inside the cell and outside in determining the direction and rate of fluxes of water and solutes. (2) The influence of the curvature of an ice crystal on its chemical potential and on the ability of ice to pass through pores in cell membranes, on the nucleation temperature of supercooled water, and on the recrystallization of ice. (3) The use of Le Chatalier's Principle in qualitatively predicting the direction of a reaction in response to variables like pressure. (4) The fact that the energy differences between State A and State B are independent of the path taken to go from A to B. (5) The importance of being aware of the assumptions underlying thermodynamic models of cryobiological events. And (6), the difficulties in obtaining experimental verification of thermodynamic and physical-chemical models. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.