Effects of glycerol pretreatment on recovery and antioxidant enzyme activities of lyophilized red blood cells.

Successful storage of red blood cells (RBCs) by freeze-drying technique has important implications in blood transfusion and clinical medicine. We presented a method of preservation RBCs by pretreating them with glycerol solution and then freeze-drying. The effects of glycerol pretreatment on recovery and antioxidant enzyme activities of lyophilized RBCs were investigated. Rehydration of pretreated in 40 percent glycerol and freeze-dried RBCs resulted in 55.3+/-4.3 percent numerical recovery and 53.5+/-3.9 percent hemoglobin recovery, which were significantly higher than freeze-dried RBCs without glycerol pretreatment (P less than 0.01). Superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) activities of 40 percent glycerol pretreated and freeze-dried RBCs almost remained fully active after freeze-drying. After 180 days storage, the activities decreased by 25.6 percent , 21.5 percent and 18.4 percent, respectively, which are significantly less than those of freeze-dried RBCs without glycerol pretreatment (P < 0.1). These data demonstrated that glycerol pretreatment had beneficial effects on the recovery and antioxidant enzyme activities of lyophilized RBCs.