The Freezing Point Depression of Mammalian Tissues after Sudden Heating in Boiling Distilled Water

The calculated freezing point depression of freshly excised boiled mammalian tissue is approximately the same as that of plasma. The boiling procedure was chosen to eliminate the influence of metabolism on the level of the freezing point depression. Problems created by the boiling, such as equilibrium between tissue and diluent, change in activity coefficient by dilution, and loss of CO(2) content, are discussed. A frozen crushed tissue homogenate is hypertonic to plasma. Boiling and dilution of such hypertonic homogenate exposed to room temperature for 5 to 15 minutes did not produce significant or unexplicable decreases in its osmotic activity. Moreover, freezing and crushing of a boiled diluted tissue did not produce any increase of the isoosmotic level of freezing point depression. It is possible to explain these data either with the hypothesis of hypertonic cell fluid or with that of isotonic cell fluid. In the case of an assumed isotonic cell fluid, data can be explained with one assumption, experimentally backed. In the case of an assumed hypertonic theory data can be explained only with the help of at least three ad hoc postulates. The data support the validity of the classical concept which holds that cell fluid is isotonic to extracellular fluid.