Medium on T H E Survival of Embryonic Tissues in Vitro

The object of this report is to present briefly the results of studies upon the duration of life of embryonic tissues preserved' in. vitro at varying temperatures and in several fluid media, the method of tissue cultivation being used to determine the viability of the tissue? There are many reports in the literature concerning the survival of tissues and organs after removal from the body, especially of the tissues which are frequently transplanted surgically in human beings. Wentscher ( I ) , for example, was able to graft pieces of human skin preserved for twenty-two days in vitro; Ljunggren (2) obtained positive results with skin kept for thirty days in tubes of ascitic fluid; while Carrel (3) reported recently that he had been able to transplant to other individuals pieces of skin removed from a child, after two to seven weeks' preservation in cold storage; the pieces preserved for the longer period, however, were not uniformly successful. Similar reports have been made regarding the preservation of other tissues. Tuffier (4) transplanted omentum kept for one month in cold storage; Magitot (5) grafted corneas which he had preserved for eight days; and Davis (6)obtained good results with fascia transplanted after being stored for forty days at 32o C. In all these instances the survival of the organs or tissues was indicated 'by the success of the transplantation. A clinically successful transplantation does not, ho~vever, wove that the transplanted cells were living, for Levin and Larkin (7) and Carrel (8)