How do you circulate cryoprotectants through the human body?

Context if you're interested

In the very near future, a planet teeming with alien life is discovered several light years away from our Solar System - and with a few precautions, it may be habitable to human life. Individual species have not been identified, but there are clear signs of biochemical reactions in the atmosphere, water is abundant, and the planet's vibrant colors are best explained by metabolism - rather than natural chemical occurrances. Additionally, this planet is old - complex life is likely, although no signs of intelligent life have been identified. The scientific community, knowing it will take decades if not centuries to send a mission, decides to skip the preemptive unmanned missions. Scientists collect all the information they needs to establish a colony, and plan to send a cryogenically frozen crew A S A P.

The main problem with freezing living things is that the cold tends to damage tissue. Ice crystals form between cells, dehydrating and shrinking them, and preventing intercellular connections; if you just froze these astronauts, you'd be left with a metal can of dead bodies.

Luckily, we know of cryoprotectants - substances developed by some living things that allow the cooling of tissue while stopping ice from forming. Many of these substances may even allow a human to survive frozen for hundreds of years - glucose, glycerol, sucrose, sodium phosphates, or polyols, for instance, would not kill a human being, and could theoretically keep them frozen for extended periods of time.

In nature, creatures that use these substances either have high contents in and around their cells, or they have systems in place to circulate the substances if it gets cold.

Humans don't have specialized transport systems in place - so how would you circulate an unspecified cryoprotectant through a human body to preserve its tissue for an extended period of time? And how would you address fluid-filled organs that your system does not address?

Note: There is no time limit. Fast would be appreciated, but if diet over time, for instance, is required to up cryoprotectant contents, then it will be accepted
Note II: The substance, as long as it is non-toxic, does not need to be removable

posted almost 8 years ago

Zxyrra‭

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