Slow tissue freezing leads to the formation of ice crystals.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Sometimes
• D. Never

Answer: (A)

Slow freezing allows water in the tissue to reorganize into a crystalline solid, but it does so mainly outside the cells. As the tissue cools gradually, water tends to move out of cells, forming extracellular ice crystals that occupy the extracellular spaces. This extracellular ice is the visible crystalline formation you’re testing for. Intracellular crystals are more a result of rapid cooling, when water cannot exit cells quickly enough and freezes inside, causing more lethal damage to cell structures. So the statement is correct because ice crystals do form during freezing, and slow cooling favors extracellular crystal formation.