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Effect of Freezing Rates on the Freeze-drying of Human Platelets


Xin-Li Zhou, Hong Zhu1, Shao-Zhi Zhang, Fa-Ming Zhu1, Guang-Ming Chen*, Li-Xing Yan1
Cryobiology Laboratory, Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China; 1Blood Center of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310006, China
Abstract: Freeze-drying is an ideal alternative for long-term preservation of platelets in blood banks. Freezing process is important for recovery of freeze-dried of platelets. In this study, the effect of freezing rates on the recovery of freeze-dried human platelets in the presence of 1% bovine serum albumin and 20% trehalose were investigated. Three cooling methods were employed, including gradient cooling, shelf cooling and plunging the sample into liquid nitrogen. The results show that shelf cooling was the best way to cool the sample, the highest recovery of freeze-dried and rehydrated platelets reached (93.0±5.2)%, the optimum rate of freezing is about 10 °C/min. Furthermore, SEM was employed to investigate the morphology of freeze-dried and rehydrated platelets but more rounder compared with fresh platelets. The maximum aggregation rate of these platelets to thrombin (1 U/ml) was close to that of fresh platelets, but aggregation speed was more slowly than the fresh ones.
    


CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2006.03.0025