MANY MINDEDPig kidneys survive three days of ice-free supercooling before transplant
Researchers led by Matthew Powell Palm at Texas A&M University have built a device that preserves organs at subzero temperatures without ice forming inside them. It supercools organs to -4°C while keeping them submerged at constant pressure, avoiding the antifreeze chemicals that other cold-storage methods depend on. The team removed single kidneys from pigs, stored them supercooled for 24, 48, or 72 hours, then transplanted them back into the same animals after removing the remaining kidney.
Kidneys stored 24 hours began producing urine immediately and looked normal within about ten days. Those held for 48 and 72 hours performed similarly and recovered faster than kidneys stored on standard ice for 24 hours. Over 30 days the pigs grew roughly 30% and the transplanted kidneys nearly doubled in size; one animal was followed for 200 days with its kidney appearing healthy.
Why it matters: more than 104,000 people in the US are waiting for a kidney, and an estimated 17 die each day. In some years about one in three donated kidneys are discarded, often because they degrade before a match is found. Stretching the viable window from roughly 24 hours to three days would widen the pool of usable organs and the geography over which they can travel.
The caveats are large. This was done in pigs, only in kidneys, and the results were presented at a June 2026 conference rather than published in a peer-reviewed journal. The cryoprotectant-free method still needs regulatory approval before any human use, and per-group sample sizes were not stated.
Source: MIT Tech Review