Abstract
Successfully cryopreserving cells adhered to a substrate would facilitate the growth of a vital confluent cell culture after thawing while dramatically shortening the post-thaw culturing time. Herein we propose a controlled slow cooling method combining initial directional freezing followed by gradual cooling down to -80C for robust preservation of cell monolayers adherent to a substrate. Using computer controlled cryostages we examined the effect of cooling rates and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) concentration on cell survival and established an optimal cryopreservation protocol. Experimental results show the highest post-thawing viability for directional ice growth at a speed of 30 μm/sec (equivalent to freezing rate of 3.8C/min), followed by gradual cooling of the sample with decreasing rate of 0.5C/min. Efficient cryopreservation of three widely used epithelial cell lines: IEC-18, HeLa, and Caco-2, provides proof-of-concept support for this new freezing protocol applied to adherent cells. This method is highly reproducible, significantly increases the post-thaw cell viability and can be readily applied for cryopreservation of cellular cultures in microfluidic devices.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e0192265 |
| Journal | PLoS ONE |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2018 Bahari et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.