Cryopreservation of rat hepatocytes with disaccharides for cell therapy

Trehalose in cryopreservation. Applications, mechanisms and intracellular delivery opportunities

Cryopreservation is crucial to fields including immune and stem cell therapies, reproductive technology, blood banking, regenerative medicine and across all biotechnology. During cryopreservation, cryoprotectants are essential to protect cells from the damage caused by exposure to freezing temperatures. The most common penetrating cryoprotectants, such as DMSO and glycerol do not give full recovery and have a cytotoxicity limit on the concentration which can be applied. The non-reducing disaccharide trehalose has been widely explored and used to supplement these, inspired by its use in nature to aid survival at extreme temperatures and/or desiccation. However, trehalose has challenges to its use, particular its low membrane permeability, and how its protective role compares to other sugars. Here we review the application of trehalose and its reported benefit and seek to show where chemical tools can improve its function. In particular, we highlight emerging chemical methods to deliver (as cargo, or via selective permeation) into the intracellular space. This includes encapsulation, cell penetrating peptides or (selective) modification of hydroxyls on trehalose.

Disaccharide Trehalose in Experimental Therapies for Neurodegenerative Disorders: Molecular Targets and Translational Potential

Induction of autophagy is a prospective approach to the treatment of neurodegeneration. In the recent decade, trehalose attracted special attention. It is an autophagy inducer with negligible adverse effects and is approved for use in humans according to FDA requirements. Trehalose has a therapeutic effect in various experimental models of diseases. This glucose disaccharide with a flexible α-1-1'-glycosidic bond has unique properties: induction of mTOR-independent autophagy (with kinase AMPK as the main target) and a chaperone-like effect on proteins imparting them natural spatial structure. Thus, it can reduce the accumulation of neurotoxic aberrant/misfolded proteins. Trehalose has an anti-inflammatory effect and inhibits detrimental oxidative stress partially owing to the enhancement of endogenous antioxidant defense represented by the Nrf2 protein. The disaccharide activates lysosome and autophagosome biogenesis pathways through the protein factors TFEB and FOXO1. Here we review various mechanisms of the neuroprotective action of trehalose and touch on the possibility of pleiotropic effects. Current knowledge about specific features of trehalose pharmacodynamics is discussed. The neuroprotective effects of trehalose in animal models of major neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's diseases are examined too. Attention is given to translational transition to clinical trials of this drug, especially oral and parenteral routes of administration. Besides, the possibility of enhancing the therapeutic benefit via a combination of mTOR-dependent and mTOR-independent autophagy inducers is analyzed. In general, trehalose appears to be a promising multitarget tool for the inhibition of experimental neurodegeneration and requires thorough investigation of its clinical capabilities.

Artificial cells for the treatment of liver diseases

Liver diseases have become an increasing health burden and account for over 2 million deaths every year globally. Standard therapies including liver transplant and cell therapy offer a promising treatment for liver diseases, but they also suffer limitations such as adverse immune reactions and lack of long-term efficacy. Artificial cells that mimic certain functions of a living cell have emerged as a new strategy to overcome some of the challenges that liver cell therapy faces at present. Artificial cells have demonstrated advantages in long-term storage, targeting capability, and tuneable features. This article provides an overview of the recent progress in developing artificial cells and their potential applications in liver disease treatment. First, the design of artificial cells and their biomimicking functions are summarized. Then, systems that mimic cell surface properties are introduced with two concepts highlighted: cell membrane-coated artificial cells and synthetic lipid-based artificial cells. Next, cell microencapsulation strategy is summarized and discussed. Finally, challenges and future perspectives of artificial cells are outlined. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Liver diseases have become an increasing health burden. Standard therapies including liver transplant and cell therapy offer a promising treatment for liver diseases, but they have limitations such as adverse immune reactions and lack of long-term efficacy. Artificial cells that mimic certain functions of a living cell have emerged as a new strategy to overcome some of the challenges that liver cell therapy faces at present. This article provides an overview of the recent progress in developing artificial cells and their potential applications in liver disease treatment, including the design of artificial cells and their biomimicking functions, two systems that mimic cell surface properties (cell membrane-coated artificial cells and synthetic lipid-based artificial cells), and cell microencapsulation strategy. We also outline the challenges and future perspectives of artificial cells.

Creation of a novel lipid-trehalose derivative showing positive interaction with the cell membrane and verification of its cytoprotective effect during cryopreservation

Cryopreservation is important for enabling long-term cell preservation. However, physical damage due to ice crystal formation and membrane permeation by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) severely affects cryopreserved cell viability. To ensure cell survival and functional maintenance after cryopreservation, it is important to protect the cell membrane, the most vulnerable cell component, from freeze-thaw damage. This study aimed to create a glycolipid derivative having a positive interaction with the cell membrane and cytoprotective effects. As a result, we synthesized a novel trehalose derivative, oleyl-trehalose (Oleyl-Treh), composed of trehalose and oleyl groups. Its use led to increased viable cell counts when used with DMSO in a non-cytotoxic concentration range (1.6 nM-16 μM). Oleyl-Treh significantly improved viability and liver-specific functions of hepatocytes after cryopreservation, including albumin secretion, ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase activity (an indicator of cytochrome P450 family 1 subfamily A member 1 activity), and ammonia metabolism. Oleyl-Treh could localize trehalose to the cell membrane; furthermore, the oleyl group affected cell membrane fluidity and exerted cryoprotective effects. This novel cryoprotective agent, which shows a positive interaction with the cell membrane, provides a unique approach toward cell protection during cryopreservation.

Ice Inhibition for Cryopreservation: Materials, Strategies, and Challenges

Cryopreservation technology has developed into a fundamental and important supporting method for biomedical applications such as cell-based therapeutics, tissue engineering, assisted reproduction, and vaccine storage. The formation, growth, and recrystallization of ice crystals are the major limitations in cell/tissue/organ cryopreservation, and cause fatal cryoinjury to cryopreserved biological samples. Flourishing anti-icing materials and strategies can effectively regulate and suppress ice crystals, thus reducing ice damage and promoting cryopreservation efficiency. This review first describes the basic ice cryodamage mechanisms in the cryopreservation process. The recent development of chemical ice-inhibition molecules, including cryoprotectant, antifreeze protein, synthetic polymer, nanomaterial, and hydrogel, and their applications in cryopreservation are summarized. The advanced engineering strategies, including trehalose delivery, cell encapsulation, and bioinspired structure design for ice inhibition, are further discussed. Furthermore, external physical field technologies used for inhibiting ice crystals in both the cooling and thawing processes are systematically reviewed. Finally, the current challenges and future perspectives in the field of ice inhibition for high-efficiency cryopreservation are proposed.

Cryoprotective enhancing effect of very low concentration of trehalose on the functions of primary rat hepatocytes

Introduction

Cells have various applications in biomedical research. Cryopreservation is a cell-preservation technique that provides cells for such applications. After cryopreservation, sensitive cells, such as primary hepatocytes, suffer from low viability due to the physical damage caused by ice crystals, highlighting the need for better methods of cryopreservation to improve cell viability. Given the importance of effectively suppressing ice crystal formation to protect cellular structure, trehalose has attracted attention as cryoprotectant based on its ability to inhibit ice crystal formation; however, trehalose induces osmotic stress. Therefore, to establish a cell-cryopreservation technique, it is necessary to provide an optimal balance between the protective and damaging effects of trehalose.

Methods

In this study, we evaluated the effects of osmotic stress and ice crystal formation on the viability and function of primary rat hepatocytes at wide range of trehalose concentration.

Results

There was no osmotic stress at very low concentrations (2.6 μM) of trehalose, and 2.6 μM trehalose drives the formation of finer ice crystals, which are less damaging to the cell membrane. Furthermore, we found that the number of viable hepatocytes after cryopreservation were 70% higher under the 2.6 μM trehalose-supplemented conditions than under the dimethyl sulfoxide-supplemented conditions. Moreover, non-cryopreserved cells and cells cryopreserved with trehalose showed comparable intracellular dehydrogenase activity.

Conclusions

We showed that trehalose at very low concentrations (2.6 μM) improved dramatically viability and liver function of hepatocyte after cryopreservation.

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Very low concentration of trehalose could suppress ice crystal formation and protect cell structure.

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There was a correlation between osmotic pressure of trehalose and hepatocytes viability.

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Very low concentration of trehalose improved viability and liver function of hepatocyte after cryopreservation.

Dimethyl sulfoxide: a central player since the dawn of cryobiology, is efficacy balanced by toxicity?

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is the cryoprotectant of choice for most animal cell systems since the early history of cryopreservation. It has been used for decades in many thousands of cell transplants. These treatments would not have taken place without suitable sources of DMSO that enabled stable and safe storage of bone marrow and blood cells until needed for transfusion. Nevertheless, its effects on cell biology and apparent toxicity in patients have been an ongoing topic of debate, driving the search for less cytotoxic cryoprotectants. This review seeks to place the toxicity of DMSO in context of its effectiveness. It will also consider means of reducing its toxic effects, the alternatives to its use and their readiness for active use in clinical settings.

Interfacial Interactions of Sucrose during Cryopreservation Detected by Raman Spectroscopy

There is considerable interest in the use of sugars to preserve cells. In this study, low temperature Raman spectroscopy was used to characterize the behaviors of sucrose during freezing. The hydrogen bond network between sucrose and water was investigated at -10 °C and -50 °C, and the Raman spectra showed strengthened sucrose-water and sucrose-sucrose hydrogen bonds in more concentrated sucrose solution at -50 °C. The concentration of sucrose at the ice interface increased as the ice density decreased, and it plateaued across a narrow channel of nonfrozen sucrose solution before it decreased toward the next ice interface. The biophysical environment at interfaces between the cell and nonfrozen sucrose solution and between the cell and extracellular ice was also studied. A thin layer of nonfrozen sucrose solution was observed at the interface between the cell and extracellular ice. The extracellular concentration of sucrose at this interface was generally lower than that of bulk nonfrozen sucrose solution. The variation of sucrose concentration outside different regions of the cell membrane suggests that the chemical environment around the cell during freezing may be more heterogeneous than previously thought. Raman spectra and images also showed colocalization of nonfrozen sucrose solution and the cell, which implied that direct interaction between sucrose and cell membrane might be responsible for protective properties of sucrose. Sucrose was predominantly distributed outside the cell, and the observation of strong partitioning of sucrose across the cell membrane is consistent with substantial cell dehydration detected by the Raman spectra. This work enhances our understanding of the behaviors of sucrose solution and its interactions with cells at low temperature and can improve cryopreservation protocols of cells frozen in a sucrose-based media.

Effects of four disaccharides on nucleation and growth of ice crystals in concentrated glycerol aqueous solution

Devitrification has been determined to be one of the major causes of cell death in cryopreservation by vitrification method. Reliable quantification of the nucleation and growth of ice crystals of devitrification is of great importance for the optimization of the vitrification solutions. In the present study, cryomicroscopy was used to investigate the nucleation and growth of ice crystals in concentrated glycerol aqueous solution (60 wt%) in the presence of sucrose, trehalose, maltose and lactose. Results showed that sucrose rather than trehalose seems to be the most effective one to inhibit the nucleation and ice growth, despite the excellent inhibitory ability of trehalose on ice growth that has been confirmed in many researches. Hence, for ice inhibition, sucrose was a more effective disaccharide additive to suppress nucleation and growth of ice crystals that occurred during devitrification in concentrated glycerol solutions.

To Protect and to Preserve: Novel Preservation Strategies for Extracellular Vesicles

Extracellular vesicles (EVs)-based therapeutics are based on the premise that EVs shed by stem cells exert similar therapeutic effects and these have been proposed as an alternative to cell therapies. EV-mediated delivery is an effective and efficient system of cell-to-cell communication which can confer therapeutic benefits to their target cells. EVs have been shown to promote tissue repair and regeneration in various animal models such as, wound healing, cardiac ischemia, diabetes, lung fibrosis, kidney injury, and many others. Given the unique attributes of EVs, considerable thought must be given to the preservation, formulation and cold chain strategies in order to effectively translate exciting preclinical observations to clinical and commercial success. This review summarizes current understanding around EV preservation, challenges in maintaining EV quality, and also bioengineering advances aimed at enhancing the long-term stability of EVs.

Low molecular-weight hyaluronan as a cryoprotectant for the storage of microencapsulated cells

The low-temperature storage of therapeutic cell-based products plays a crucial role in their clinical translation for the treatment of diverse diseases. Although dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) is the most successful cryoprotectant in slow freezing of microencapsulated cells, it has shown adverse effects after cryopreserved cell-based products implantation. Therefore, the search of alternative non-toxic cryoprotectants for encapsulated cells is continuously investigated to move from bench to the clinic. In this work, we investigated the low molecular-weight hyaluronan (low MW-HA), a natural non-toxic and non-sulfated glycosaminoglycan, as an alternative non-permeant cryoprotectant for the slow freezing cryopreservation of encapsulated cells. Cryopreservation with low MW-HA provided similar metabolic activity, cell dead and early apoptotic cell percentage and membrane integrity after thawing, than encapsulated cells stored with either DMSO 10% or Cryostor 10. However, the beneficial outcomes with low MW-HA were not comparable to DMSO with some encapsulated cell types, such as the human insulin secreting cell line, 1.1B4, maybe explained by the different expression of the CD44 surface receptor. Altogether, we can conclude that low MW-HA represents a non-toxic natural alternative cryoprotectant to DMSO for the cryopreservation of encapsulated cells.

Droplet based vitrification for cell aggregates: Numerical analysis

Cell aggregates represent the main format of cells existing in vivo and have been widely used as tissue and disease models in vitro. Nevertheless, the preservation of cell aggregates while maintaining their functionalities for off-the-shelf applications is still challenging. Among various preservation methods, droplet-based vitrification exhibits superior advantages for the cryopreservation of cell aggregates; however, the physical mechanisms underlying droplet-based vitrification of cell aggregate using this method remain elusive. To address this issue, we proposed a voronoi model to construct two-dimensional geometric morphologies of cell aggregates and established a coupled physical model to describe the diffusion, heat transfer and crystallization processes during vitrification. Based on these models, we performed a numerical study on the variation and distribution of cryoprotectant (CPA) concentration, temperature and crystallization in cell aggregates during droplet-based vitrification. The results show that although cell membrane is not an obvious barrier in heat transfer, it affects the diffusion of CPA remarkably as a biologic film and thus the following crystallization in cell aggregates. The effective protection of CPA during vitrification occurs during the initial stage of CPA diffusion, thus a longer CPA loading time does not necessarily lead to significant decrease in crystallization, but rather may induce more toxicity to cells.