Intracellular freezing of human granulocytes.

Human granulocyte suspensions were exposed to controlled freezing regimens on a cryomicroscope, and the incidence of intracellular freezing was measured as a function of cooling rate and extracellular nucleation temperature. The presence of intracellular ice was assessed by analysis of serially recorded images of the freeze-thaw process and by correlation with measured patterns of change in the cell volume. For granulocytes suspended in autologous plasma, a threshold was described for intracellular freezing as an empirical function of cooling rate (B) and extracellular nucleation temperature (Tn): B (degrees C/min) = 1.1 Tn (degrees C) + 12.3.