The effect of the cryoprotectants, dimethylsulfoxide and glycerol on water transport in the human red blood cell.

The response of human red blood cells to the cryoprotective agents, DMSO and glycerol, has been investigated using a pulsed NMR method. The experimentally determined parameters are: (1) the intracellular transverse relaxation time, T2a; (2) the mean residence time of intracellular water, tau a, which is effectively a reciprocal measure of the rate of water transport across the red blood cell membrane; and (3) the activation energy for this process. The quantitative data indicate that the observed effects are colligative rather than species-specific in origin.