Implications of variability in cell membrane permeability for design of methods to remove glycerol from frozen-thawed erythrocytes.

Implications of variability in cell membrane permeability for design of methods to remove glycerol from frozen-thawed erythrocytes.
Cryobiology. 2020 Jan 11;:
Authors: Lahmann JM, Sanchez CC, Benson JD, Acker JP, Higgins AZ
Abstract
In North America, red blood cells (RBCs) are currently cryopreserved in a solution of 40% glycerol. While glycerol is not inherently toxic to humans, it must be removed prior to transfusion to prevent intravascular osmotic hemolysis. The current deglycerolization procedure requires about 45 min per RBC unit. We previously presented predictions suggesting that glycerol could be safely removed from RBCs in less than 1 min. However, experimental evaluation of these methods resulted in much higher hemolysis than expected. Here we extend our previous study by considering both concentration-dependence of permeability and variability in permeability values in the mathematical optimization algorithm. To establish a model for the concentration dependence of glycerol permeability, we combined literature data with new measurements of permeability in the presence of 40% glycerol. To account for cell-dependent variability we scaled the concentration-dependent permeability model to define a permeability range for optimization. Methods designed using a range extending to 50% of the model-predicted glycerol permeability had a duration of less than 3 min and resulted in hemolysis ranging from 34% to 83%; hemolysis v...

Source: Cryobiology - January 10, 2020 Category: Biology Authors: Lahmann JM, Sanchez CC, Benson JD, Acker JP, Higgins AZ Tags: Cryobiology Source Type: research