Molecular Mobility in Trehalose Loaded Mammalian Cells: Time-Resolved Fluorescence Anisotropy Measurements

Many preservation methods have utilized sugars such as trehalose as protectants against injury during cell preservation processing, especially during drying (1–5). As mammalian cells do not synthesize trehalose, research in the mammalian cell desiccation field has focused on the development of strategies to enable trehalose delivery into the intracellular milieu. Numerous techniques have been explored ranging from microinjection (2) to the creation or utilization of membrane pores (1,3). Fluid phase endocytosis has shown great promise as an effective strategy for non-invasively delivering water-soluble materials into the intracellular space (4, 5). In this technique trehalose is transported across the cell membrane in membrane-bound cellular compartments called endosomes. Cells incubated in cell culture medium containing trehalose have been shown to take up considerable amounts of trehalose by this technique (4, 5). How much of this trehalose actually become available for protection of biomolecules during the dehydration process has yet to be determined.