Thermal Pretreatment Improves Viability of Cryopreserved Human Endothelial Cells

A high survival rate of cryopreserved cells requires optimal cooling and thawing rates in the presence of a cryoprotective agent (CPA) or a combination of CPAs in adequate concentrations. One of the most widely used CPAs, dimethyl sulfoxide (Me2SO), however is toxic at high concentrations and has detrimental effects on cellular functions. Additional processing steps are necessary to remove the CPA after thawing, which make the process expensive and time consuming. Therefore it is of great interest to develop new cryoprotective strategies to replace the currently used CPAs or to reduce their concentration. The aim of this study was to investigate if thermal activation of human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HPMEC ST-1.6R), prior to cryopreservation, could improve their post-thaw viability since the resulting heat shock protein expression acts as an intrinsic cellular protection mechanism. The results of this study suggest that both heat and cold shock pretreatments improve cryopreservation outcome of the HPMEC ST-1.6R cells. By re-cultivating cells after heat shock treatment before cryopreservation, a significant increase in cellular membrane integrity and adherence capacity could be achieved. However a combination of thermal activation and cryopreservation with alternative CPAs such as ectoine and L-proline could not further enhance the cell viability. The results of this study showed that pretreatment of endothelial cells with thermal activation could be used to reduce the Me2SO concentration required in order to preserve cell viability after cryopreservation.