Liquid water in frozen tissue: study by nuclear magnetic resonance.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was used to examine the behavior and extent of liquid water in postrigor-frozen tissue of cod at temperatures below 0 degrees C. A liquid-water phase persists in the tissue down to about -70 degrees C; the extent of the phase decreases rapidly between 0 degrees and -10 degrees C and slowly at lower temperatures. That the NMR absorption peak of the liquid water increases in width, with decreasing temperature, suggests loss of mobility or structuring of the phase. A technique for introducing geometrically uniform cores of muscle into the probe of the high-resolution spectrometer permits quantitative determinations of liquid water.