MOSCOW, June 19 A completely domestic composition for preserving the structure and properties of blood outside a living organism was developed by specialists from the North Caucasus Federal University (NCFU). As the university press service said, the new composition does not require the creation and maintenance of ultra-low temperatures, which will reduce the cost of storing the material and avoid the use of a number of toxic components.
The university explained that the most effective way to preserve biomaterial today is freezing. However, a significant slowdown in processes in cells is observed at temperatures no higher than -70°C. Such low temperatures are achieved using liquid nitrogen under pressure, which requires the use of bulky, expensive equipment and regular replenishment of gas reserves.
To ensure protection of the integrity of the cells in the composition frozen biomaterial, special substances are required – cryoprotectors. They allow you to smoothly defrost and freeze cellular material so that ice crystals do not damage its external and internal structure.
According to university experts, to reduce the toxic effect of cryopreservatives, it is advisable to use components of natural origin as protective substances: lipids, proteins and carbohydrates, as well as polyhydric alcohols.
NCFU scientists have developed a new mixture that allows maintaining the integrity of blood cells and their functionality when frozen at submoderate and moderately low temperatures (-20 and -40°C). The proposed method, unlike other methods that allow preserving blood products only separately, makes it possible to preserve whole blood.
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“One of the main components that have a cryoprotective effect in our composition is the disaccharide lactulose. “No data on the toxic, teratogenic or mutagenic effects of lactulose were obtained in experiments on animals or in clinical studies involving humans,” said one of the authors of the work, Associate Professor of the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Medicine of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences of NKFU, Alexander Vlasov.
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The developers noted that the cryopreservative with lactulose is effective in freezing conditions down to –40°C, and is also affordable, since all components are produced in Russia. Based on the results of the study, the university staff received a patent for the invention.
“In the future, we want to establish the mechanism of the cryoprotective effect of lactulose, data on which we have not found in the literature, and conduct research on the effectiveness of the cryopreservative at lower temperatures,” — emphasized Svetlana Andrusenko, co-author of the work, associate professor of the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Medicine, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, NCFU.
The research was carried out as part of the implementation of the state program for supporting universities “Priority 2030” of the national project “Science and Universities”.
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