Beneficial effects of intracellular trehalose on red blood cells by freeze drying

Effects of intracellular trehalose on red blood cells by freeze drying are investigated.Trehalose is loaded into fresh red blood cells after 7 hours' incubation at 37 ℃ in various concentration trehalose solutions(400,600,800,1 000 mmol/L).The results indicate that the intracellular trehalose concentration is increased with the increasing concentration of extracellular trehalose solution.The maximum concentration of intracellular trehalose is 35 mmol/L in this study.Red blood cells loaded with trehalose are lyophilized.Results show that the viability(59.78±4.51%) and the recovery of hemoglobin(57.49±3.69%) of incubated group increase remarkably compared to those of control group.Osmotic fragility data show that trehalose exerts osmotic protection on RBCs during freeze-drying.