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Effects of Intracellular Trehalose on the Freeze-Dried Red Blood Cells
Hui He, Bao-Lin Liu*, Ze-Zhao Hua, Chuan Li, Zheng-Zhen Wu
Institute of Cryogenic Engineering, Shanghai University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
Abstract: Freeze-drying is one potentially ideal technology for long-term preservation of living biological cells. To increase the survival and stability of human red blood cells (RBCs) after freeze-drying and rehydration， trehalose is introduced in RBCs using a hypertonic method before freeze-drying. The effects of intracellular trehalose concentration on RBCs after freeze-drying and rehydration are investigated. The results indicate that the survival of RBCs after freeze-drying and rehydration increases with the increment of intracellular trehalose concentration， the survival of RBCs after freeze-drying and rehydration is over 53.6% with 43.8 mmol/L of intracellular trehalose， the levels of ATPase and superoxide dismutase (SOD) are maintained close to the levels of fresh RBCs. Morphological study also confirms the results. It demonstrates that disiccation tolerance of RBCs increases along with the concentration of intracellular trehalose. Our study demonstrates that trehalose has protective effects on freeze-dried RBCs， the survival of freeze-dried RBCs depends on both extracellular and intracellular vitrification.
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