Incidence of breakage of human RBCs frozen with 40-percent wt/vol glycerol using two different methods for storage at -80 degrees C.

Abstract

We reported previously that the incidence of breakage was 34.2 percent when human RBCs were frozen with 40-percent wt/vol glycerol in polyolefin plastic bags stored in aluminum containers at -80 degrees C and subjected to transportation. When human RBCs were frozen with 40-percent wt/vol glycerol at -80 degrees C in PVC plastic bags placed in polyester plastic bags and stored in rigid corrugated cardboard boxes, transportation resulted in a 2.4-percent incidence of breakage. The present study was done to confirm this incidence of breakage. The Meryman- Hornblower freezing method was compared to the Naval Blood Research Laboratory (NBRL) method of freezing for incidence of bag breakage. Human RBCs frozen by the Meryman-Hornblower method with 40-percent wt/vol glycerol with supernatant glycerol and stored in polyolefin plastic bags in aluminum containers at -80 degrees C were stored at the NBRL from 1974 to 2002. With the NBRL method, human RBCs frozen at -80 degrees C without supernatant glycerol in the 800-mL PVC plastic primary bag inside a polyester plastic bag in a rigid corrugated cardboard box were stored at the NBRL from 1984 to 2002. The incidence of breakage for 532 units of RBCs that had been frozen by the Meryman- Hornblower method and stored in aluminum containers was 47.3 percent for nontransported units. RBCs that had been frozen by the NBRL method and stored in rigid corrugated cardboard boxes exhibited breakage of 2.4 percent for 2424 nontransported units and 6.7 percent for 633 transported units. The incidence of breakage was significantly lower for RBCs frozen by the NBRL method than for the RBCs frozen by the Meryman-Hornblower method.