In vivo circulation of mouse red blood cells frozen in the presence of dextran and glucose.

Loading with monosaccharide can improve the quality of human red blood cells (hRBCs) frozen with polymer. But in vivo life span of hRBCs frozen with polymer and sugar is not determined. In this study, following incubation with glucose, mouse red blood cells (mRBCs) were frozen in liquid nitrogen for 24h using dextran as the extracellular protectant. After thawing, hemolysis, exposure of PS, and osmotic fragility of frozen mRBCs were determined in vitro. After transfusion of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled mRBCs, the 24h recovery and half life span of frozen mRBCs were determined. The data indicated the postthaw hemolysis of mRBCs frozen with dextran and glucose were significantly less than that of cells frozen with dextran (17.23%+/-5.21% vs 25.96%+/-10.07%, P=0.034). But freezing can also result in exposure of phosphatidylserine and increase of osmotic fragility of mRBCs. After transfusion, the 24h recovery of mRBCs frozen in the absence or presence of glucose was similar to that of the control cells (P=0.748 and 0.971). However, the half life span of mRBCs frozen in the absence or presence of glucose was significantly less than that of the control cells (P=0.000). In addition, incubation with glucose can not increase the life span of frozen red blood cells (7.16+/-0.93 d vs 7.15+/-0.34 d, P=0.982). In conclusion, incubation with monosaccharide could significantly increase the recovery of mRBCs frozen with polymer. Although freezing can significantly shorten the half life span of frozen cells, it can not influence the 24h recovery of frozen mRBCs. In addition, incubation with monosaccharide before freezing can not increase the life span of frozen mRBCs. So according to the above data, to increase the life span of hRBCs frozen with polymer and monosaccharide, the osmotic fragility of the frozen RBCs must be decreased in the future.