Figure 6. Viability and metabolic activity of 3-hour vitrified vs fresh and slow-frozen whole TMJ discs.

(A) Sagittal section of anterior (A), central (C), posterior (P), medial (M), and lateral (L) for fresh, slow-frozen (SF), and 3-hour vitrified (3 Hr Vit) TMJ discs. The whole anterior-posterior band images captured via 2× magnification and manually stitched together. Scale bars represent 3 mm. Five specific region views were captured via 10× magnification. Scale bars represent 200 μm. The region views for anterior (red), central (blue), and posterior (yellow) align with locations shown within the anterior-posterior bands through dashed boxes. (B) Quantitative viability analysis and comparison of five distinct regions obtained from three groups (N=4). p-value determined via two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc test. (C) Metabolic activity comparison over a 4-day post-warming period in fresh, slow-frozen and 3-hour vitrified whole TMJ discs compared to their respective fresh values (N=4). p-value determined using two-way ANOVA. Data are mean±SD. N = number of independent TMJ discs.