Interactive effect of pressure and temperature on the preservation of rat primary-cultured astrocytes and human glioblastoma cell line A172

Environmental factors such as temperature and pressure are important determinants of cell survival. Although the effect of temperature on cell preservation has been previously reported, the effects of pressure, an equally important thermodynamic parameter, have not been sufficiently investigated. In this study, we investigated the effect of temperature and pressure on cellular viability, morphology, adhesiveness, cell death, cell cycle and glucose metabolism in rat primary-cultured astrocytes and A172 human glioblastoma cell line subjected to 4-day preservation. It was revealed that under favorable preservation conditions (temperature: 15 degrees C-20 degrees C, pressure: 0.1-30MPa) (1) cell morphology and adhesiveness of preserved cells were maintained similar to freshly isolated cells; (2) cell cycle was arrested; (3) glucose uptake and intra/extra-cellular pH decrease were suppressed. These results suggest that lowering temperature to 15 degrees C-20 degrees C or increasing pressure up to 30MPa at temperatures of 20 degrees C-25 degrees C can reduce cellular metabolism and maintain cell-membrane fluidity, thus resulting in higher viability.