cryo-, cry-, kryo-, kry-
(Greek: cold, very cold, freezing; used to describe the effects of low temperatures or activities carried on at a very low temperature)
2. Paralysis of the heart as a result of hypothermia or cold.
2. The extreme use of cold in destroying tissue as if by "burning" it.
2. Depressions containing cryoconite that absorbs solar radiation, thus causing the melting of the neighboring glacier ice.
3. Organisms and wind-blown detritus that induce surface melt pits in glaciers.
Cryopreservation is the maintaining of viability of excised tissue, organs, embryos, sperm, ova, or other substances; such as, for transplantation, by storing them at very low temperatures, usually with immersion in liquid nitrogen at -196.5°C.
In cryoelectron microscopy, the freezing of the sample is done in ethane slush to produce vitreous, or non-crystalline, ice. The frozen sample grid is then kept at liquid nitrogen temperature in the electron microscope and digital micrographs are collected with a camera.
The advantages of cryo-EM over traditional EM techniques include the preservation of the sample in a near-native hydrated state without the distortions from stains or fixatives needed for traditional EM. With image processing and averaging of multiple images, cyroelectron microscopy provides high resolution information (below 10 angstroms).
An angstrom is a metric unit of length equal to one ten billionth of a meter (or 0.0001 micron); used to specify wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.
It is accomplished with an instrument (cryoprobe) whose extremely cold tip forms an adhesion (iceball) with the lens, thus permitting removal of the lens.
Cooling rates of 10,000 degrees per minute may be used in cryofixations and liquid nitrogen or even liquid helium temperatures are utilized and it is not necessary to include any chemical treatments.
You may take a self-scoring quiz over some of the words in this section by clicking on this cryo-, kryo- quiz to check your word knowledge or learn more about the words in this unit.
Cross references of word families that are related directly or indirectly to "winter, freezing, frost, and/or cold": algid- (cold, chilly); cheimo-, chimo- (winter, cold); crymo-, krymo- (cold, chill, frost); frigo-, frig- (cold, frost); gel-, gelati- (freeze, frost, congeal); hiber- (winter, wintry); pago- (cold, freezing); psychro- (cold); rhigo- (cold, frost; shiver).