The process of cryopreservation, which involves freezing cells and storing them at ultra-low or cryogenic temperatures, has been carried out for decades and is a crucial aspect of cell preservation from experimental research to clinical applications.
Making the right choice of cryopreservation media, however, can play a crucial role towards your success with this technique.
In this post, we’ll explore the importance of cryopreservation media and discuss both home-brew recipes and commercial options that you may want to consider, to optimize your cell preservation.
Why is Cryopreservation Media so important?
Cryopreservation media protects and safeguards your cells; preventing the formation of damaging ice crystals that could compromise cellular structures. Therefore, choosing the right cryoprotectants and additives becomes crucial to cell and gene therapy (CGT) research, especially when you’re handling sensitive cells such as primary or pluripotent cells.
Do-it-yourself freezing media… or not?
Some researchers make the choice to prepare their own freezing medium, particularly when dealing with robust immortalized cell lines. Common home-brew recipes include a mixture of DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) and serum in growth media, aiming to prevent ice crystal formation and cell shrinkage during freezing. These recipes often provide a cost-effective solution, but the process may be heavy and time-consuming to study and formulate according to the unique requirements and sensitivities of each cell line.
What about off-the-shelf cryopreservation media?
When you’re working with delicate cell types or seeking consistency, commercial freezing media brings you a reliable alternative. These products often contain serum alternatives, reducing the risk of lot-to-lot variation. Investing in chemically defined and quality-checked media can ensure better reproducibility and long-term cost savings, particularly for your sensitive stem cells.
Why and when should you consider CryoStor® for cryopreservation?
Here at Tebubio, we advise CryoStor®, which is manufactured to meet cGMP principles from raw materials of USP/Multicompendial grade. It has a multi-year stability profile, and is backed by BioLife Solutions’ Quality Management System to deliver a consistent, quality, high performance product. This off-the-shelf solution is pre-formulated with 2%, 5%, or 10% DMSO, allowing you to tailor the DMSO concentration for optimal cell survival and function based on your specific cell type. Another interesting factor to consider, CryoStor is a serum-free and protein-free solution. Its innovative design, available in various volumes and container formats, offers you the flexibility for scaling up processes, demonstrating CryoStor’s utility that extends beyond ensuring a comprehensive solution for diverse processing requirements.
And for hypothermic preservation, what about HypoThermosol® FRS?
HypoThermosol FRS® (HTS-FRS) stands out as an optimized hypothermic (+2° to +8°C) preservation medium designed to enhance the extended preservation of cells, tissues, and organs. Uniquely formulated, HTS-FRS addresses the molecular-biological responses of cells during hypothermic preservation. This is achieved by incorporating key ions at concentrations that balance the intracellular state at lower temperatures. Furthermore, HTS-FRS includes essential components such as pH buffers, energy substrates, free radical scavengers, and osmotic/oncotic stabilizers to ensure comprehensive support throughout the preservation process.
Compatible for Cell and Gene Therapy
Tebubio’s partner, BioLife Solutions, has expertise in many types of cell cryopreservation, and can help to design an experiment for preserving a new type of cells. The table below provides an incomplete list of their experience, so don’t hesitate to get in touch for your specific needs or cell preservation requirements.
| Some examples of CGT-Specific Research Applications | ||
|---|---|---|
| B Cell | Mesenchymal Stem Cell | T Cell |
| Dendritic Cell | Monocyte | Myogenic Stem Cell |
| Human Pluripotent Stem Cell | Myeloid Cell | Killer Cell Research |
| Granulocyte | Neural Stem Cell | Organ Cancer Cell |
| Lymphocyte | Progenitor Cell | Immuno-oncology |
| Regenerative Medicine | Advanced Therapies | |
Make the right choice of cryopreservation media
To achieve successful cryopreservation, you really need to select the right media, tailored to the specific requirements of each of your cell types. Whether you decide to go for a home-brew recipe or you prefer to opt for a commercial solution, understanding the importance of using the ideal cryopreservation media is vital to ensure longevity and functionality of your preserved cells. This is an evolving field, and both Biolife solutions and Tebubio are dedicated to helping researchers to the right decisions and to be work with the optimal solutions.
References
Dance, A. (2017, March 14). Freeze It Right: Recipes and Products for Cryopreservation Media. Biocompare.
Thank you to Biolife Solutions for providing content for this post.
