Thermodynamic analysis of intracellular ice recrystallization in mouse oocytes

In a recent article published in Cryobiology, Seki and Mazur performed kinetic analysis to investigate the physicochemical mechanism of the intracellular ice formation in mouse oocytes subjected to rapid cooling. Based on their results, the authors calculated the activation energy for the ice recrystallization process to be 27.5 kcal/mol. In this letter, we report our analysis of the result in terms of the transition-state theory to show that the process is unfavorable in terms of enthalpy but favorable in terms of entropy accompanying molecular expansions. This report is expected to evoke interests in applying thermodynamics to the investigation of the intracellular ice formation.