Oxidative injury during the storage of cell-based biosensors and therapeutics

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The development of preservation and long-term storage techniques is a critical requirement for the successful clinical and commercial use of cell-based technologies. With the performance of tissue engineering, cell and tissue transplantation, and transfusion medicine dependent on the quality of the living cells, preserving cells and tissues remains one of the most important challenges facing reparative medicine. In addition, the stability of cells or cell products in portable diagnostic tests under extreme environmental conditions (temperature and humidity) is considered to be a critical requirement for their use in accurately diagnosing disease in the developing world. There are a number of approaches to the preservation of cell-based technologies including refrigeration, freezing and dry storage (desiccation). Cell injury is related to how the cell responds to the physical and chemical changes that occur during the preservation processes. Over the past twenty years, enormous progress has been made understanding the response of natural systems (for example insects, plants, and nematodes) to environmental stress and the molecular strategies that are responsible for natural desiccation- and freeze-tolerance. Oxidative stress during preservation is the result of the accumulation of reactive oxygen species or loss of antioxidant capacity that must be accommodated if cell survival is to occur. Our long term goals are to understand and then mimic the native stress response strategies of natural systems to improve the preservation of cell-based biosensors and therapeutics. It is our hypothesis that improved methods for the preservation of mammalian cells used in cell-based technologies will result from a better understanding of oxidative injury. We will investigate the use of protectants and antioxidants from natural systems as new methods to reduce storage-related oxidative injury. This study is a focused effort to bring together current and emerging knowledge of the response of mammalian cells to oxidative stress with the aim of accelerating efforts to enhance the quality and safety of stored cells.