The surface activity of PVP and other polymers and their antihemolytic capacity

The polymeric cryoprotective agents polyvinylpyrrolidone, dextran, and hydroxyethyl starch do not penetrate the cell membrane and are not present in high osmotic concentrations. Thus, they can exert little of the "antifreeze" behavior generally attributed to glycerol or dimethyl sulfoxide, and must protect cells from freezing injury by some action external to the cell surface. Surface energy measurements of droplets of hemoglobin solution immersed in solutions of cryoprotective polymers indicate that these polymers lower the surface energy of the solution below that of the hemoglobin droplets and form a stable interface. In injured cells, these polymers will therefore hide membrane defects by forming an interface across which hemoglobin cannot easily pass. When freezing is slow, the polymers have little if any true cryoprotective effect but interfere with hemoglobin release as an assay of injury.