Some elements of therapeutic hypothermia seem reminiscent of something straight out of a B movie science fiction flick. The procedure, which is the act of cooling down the body to allow the completion of medical activities, might evoke images of science fiction stories depicting people who are cryogenically frozen – hoping to be thawed out and returned to life in the far future when there is a cure for the disease they are suffering from.

But the act of preserving cells using methods of extreme cooling during high-end surgeries is hardly a work of fiction. The procedure is also far from perfect.

Part of the problem is that there just isn’t a delivery system that can cool down specific parts of the body in a manner quick enough and efficient enough to be beneficial.

Current techniques in therapeutic hypothermia have the body being cooled externally with cooling jackets or blankets – severely limiting the applications for which the procedure can be used.

But a partnership between BioTime (Emeryville, California) a company that develops blood plasma volume expanders and Argonne National Laboratories (Argonne, Illinois) seeks to develop a delivery system that will be able to internally cool specific organs and cells in the body in a more efficient manner.

“We want to save lives by introducing therapeutic hypothermia through a broad level of applications,” Kenneth Kasza, Senior Mechanical Engineer of Argonne told Medical Device Daily about the impetus behind the study. “Currently there is no hypothermia done on patients with ice slurries.”

The two companies say they intend to engage in a cooperative research program in the field of therapeutic hypothermia to determine the best course of action in developing a delivery system.

That study would follow a combination of Argonne’s ice/water-based slurry, which the company has been developing for the last seven years and BioTime’s HetaCool, which not only expands the blood supply, but also freezes it at a much lower temperature as low as 35 degrees Fahrenheit. BioTime says its procedure can have an application in elective surgery giving doctors even more time to perform complex lifesaving procedures that can’t be accomplished when normal blood circulation must be maintained.

The combined product would be delivered via a catheter.

The goal of the BioTime-Argonne cooperative research is to advance hypothermic trauma technology so it can be applied rapidly in the field by relatively untrained personnel, after which the patient can be transferred to a hospital. The technology could be used for potential applications in stroke, heart attack and trauma patients.

The companies said they will collaboratively test their current technologies in appropriate model systems and seek to improve their products and techniques to quickly and safely lower the temperature of tissues, organs and whole mammals for extended periods of time.

Argonne’s ice slurries, which have been tested in animals, have been known to cool down a 50 kg pig from 37 degrees Fahrenheit down to 34 degrees Fahrenheit within five to six minutes. That compares to a two- to three-hour cool down period for the same temperature drop using an external cooling blanket.

The company says this solution, which could be delivered through a catheter-based system could eliminate the body fighting against such chill.

The partnership is only in its beginning stages — and applications have just been tested in animals. According to BioTime, its HetaCool has allowed animal subjects to reversibly undergo circulatory arrest for up to two hours at ice cold temperatures.

“We did our first [procedure] with an ice slurry with a blood-based substitute in June,” he said. “Through this combined product we could avoid possible chemical upsets of the body.”

Some of those chemical upsets are edema, (swelling of the organ) and acidosis.

The companies said FDA approval is still far away and representatives from Argonne did not give a clear timeline as to when the combined device would be ready for development.

The companies both enter into a sector that is quickly growing.

What was once thought to be the stuff of science fiction novels is turning out to be a novel procedure to ensure cell and organ preservation during traumatic events.

Recent studies show that induced hypothermia has been able to improve neurologic outcomes after cardiac arrest.

Patients who are successfully resuscitated after cardiac arrest (stopping of the heart), but remain in a comatose state, have a greater chance of survival and neurological recovery if mildly cooled to about 33 degrees Celsius. The strongest evidence of its utility is in patients who have arrested due to ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia, though its use has been expanded to other rhythms.