ISSN:
1432-1424
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
Notes:
Summary Bovine red cells, like other cells, exhibit maximum survival when frozen at certain optimum rates. Cells cooled more slowly are apparently injured by alterations in the cytoplasm or surrounding medium such as the increased concentration of solutes induced by extracellular ice formation. Additives like glycerol protect against this “slow” freezing injury. It has been generally believed that such protection requires permeation by the additive, but we have found that this supposition is not valid for the bovine red cell. Cells were suspended in 1, 2 or 3m glycerol at 20, 15 or 0°C for 0.7 to 30 min or more and then frozen to −196°C at 43 or 1.7°C/min. In nearly all cases, the percentage survival after thawing was as high for cells held in glycerol for 1 min or less prior to freezing as for cells held in glycerol for 30 min, and it was as high for cells held at 0°C as for cells held at 20°C. Survivals were the same for these times and temperatures of exposure in spite of the fact that the osmolal ratio of glycerol to salts in the cell after 30 min at 20°C, for example, was as much as 800 times greater than that in cells held at 0°C for 0.7 min. In addition, the survival after a contact of 1 or 30 min with 2.3 osmolal sucrose was the same as that after exposure to 2.3 osmolal glycerol even though the bovine red cell is impermeable to sucrose. Although exposures of 1 and 30 min to glycerol yielded similar survivals, exposures for intermediate times produced a transitory but dramatic decrease in survival. The dip occurred after longer periods of incubation when the concentration of glycerol was increased and when the incubation temperature was decreased. No dip was evident in cells chilled to 0°C or in cells frozen in sucrose. Thus, the dip seems to be associated in some way with partial permeation of glycerol prior to freezing.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01870085
