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Preservation of mammalian cells—learning nature's tricks

Nature Biotechnology volume 18, pages 145–146 (2000)Cite this article

Preservation of cells by freezing or drying is of enormous practical importance in industry, clinical medicine, and agriculture. Two new reports in this issue present results showing that the sugar, trehalose, can preserve frozen1 or dry2 mammalian cells, findings that are likely to find immediate applications in biotechnology.

Trehalose is a disaccharide found at high concentrations (as much as 20% of the dry weight) in many organisms that naturally survive dehydration, a phenomenon known as “anhydrobiosis” (life without water). Such organisms include, for example, ordinary dry baker's yeast, resurrection plants, cysts of certain crustaceans (notably the brine shrimp, Artemia), many bacteria, and certain microscopic animals.

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Figure 1: Scanning electron micrographs of an active tardigrade (left) and a dry but viable (anhydrobiotic) one (right).
Figure 2: Metbaolic pathway for synthesis of trehalose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. John H. Crowe is professor of molecular and cellular biology and Lois H. Crowe is research biophysicist at the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California-Davis, Davis, 95616, CA

    John H. Crowe & Lois M. Crowe

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  1. John H. Crowe
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  2. Lois M. Crowe
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Crowe, J., Crowe, L. Preservation of mammalian cells—learning nature's tricks. Nat Biotechnol 18, 145–146 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/72580

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