Safe, simple, and rapid removal of glycerol from frozen red blood cells

Red blood cells (RBCs) have a limited shelf life, and disruptions in supply chain as well as catastrophic
events can lead to blood shortages. Moreover, autologous and rare blood types often require storage
beyond the 40 day refrigerated shelf life. Cryopreservation in high concentrations of glycerol at -80 °C
is an established and long-term preservation option but is limited by the expensive and time-consuming
deglycerolization process. Shorter deglycerolization would allow easier use of cryopreserved RBC
products, providing critical backup for supply chains. The RBCs’ ability to rapidly transport water
across the membrane causes RBCs to overinflate and die during too fast deglycerolization. Here we
propose a novel method to significantly reduce this overinflation allowing a much shorter
deglycerolization protocol that can be implemented at much reduced cost and on multiple units
simultaneously

BENSON, James

University of Saskatchewan

Blood Efficiency Accelerator Program

Saskatchewan

$30,000