Small-molecule fulvic acid with strong hydration ability for non-vitreous cellular cryopreservation

Guoying Bai; Jinhao Hu; Sijia Qin; Zipeng Qi; Hening Zhuang; Fude Sun; Youhua Lu; Shenglin Jin; Dong Gao; Jianjun Wang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104423

Small-molecule fulvic acid with strong hydration ability for non-vitreous cellular cryopreservation

iScience. 2022 May 18;25(6):104423. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104423. eCollection 2022 Jun 17.

Authors

Guoying Bai^{1

2}, Jinhao Hu¹, Sijia Qin¹, Zipeng Qi¹, Hening Zhuang¹, Fude Sun³, Youhua Lu², Shenglin Jin², Dong Gao³, Jianjun Wang²

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China.
² Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Hebei Province for Molecular Biophysics Institute of Biophysics, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China.

Abstract

The exploitation of biocompatible ice-control materials especially the small molecules for non-vitreous cryopreservation remains challenging. Here, we report a small molecule of fulvic acid (FA) with strong hydration ability, which enables non-vitreous cellular cryopreservation by reducing ice growth during freezing and reducing ice recrystallization/promoting ice melting during thawing. Without adding any other cryoprotectants, FA can enhance the recovery of sheep red blood cells (RBCs) by three times as compared with a commercial cryoprotectant (hydroxyethyl starch) under a stringent test condition. Investigation of water mobility reveals that the ice-control properties of FA can be ascribed to its strong bondage to water molecules. Furthermore, we found that FA can be absorbed by RBCs and mainly locates on membranes, suggesting the possible contribution of FA to cell protection through stabilizing membranes. This work bespeaks a bright future for small-molecule cryoprotectants in non-vitreous cryopreservation application.

Keywords: Biotechnology; Chemistry; Organic chemistry.