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About 70% of the body water that gets frozen in the wood frogs is frozen outside their cells, in those "safe" extracellular spaces: inside the abdomen and in sheets between their skin and muscles.

The researchers show that dAdo is initially produced in the apoplast, an extracellular space outside the host cells.

Protein secretion is a fundamental biological process by which proteins are transported from a cell into the extracellular space, which is crucial for various functions, including communication between cells, immune responses, and digestion.

They produce and organize the so-called extracellular matrix, a network of proteins such as collagen, which makes the tissue stable and elastic, but also perform many other tasks.

Made out of long, intertwining fibers, the porous material better mimics the structure of the extracellular matrix found in human organs, and it has previously been used to create scaffolds for purposes like wound healing.