Vital-freezing of human muscle cultures for storage and reculture

The vital-freezing of human muscle cultures enabling long-term storage in liquid nitrogen and future reculturing is described. Although human muscle is more fastidious in tissue culture than most cells of other origin, it was successfully frozen and re-established in culture. Cultures re-established after storage in liquid nitrogen differentiated and matured in the same way as primary human muscle cultures, and had the same histochemical and electron microscopic characteristics.