Freezing and post-thaw apoptotic behaviour of cells in the presence of palmitoyl nanogold particles

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the freezing response of HeLa and Jurkat cells in the presence of commercially available nanoparticles, NPs (Palmitoyl Nanogold®, Nanoprobes). The cells were incubated with NPs for either 5 min or 3 h, and a calorimeter technique was then used to generate the volumetric shrinkage response during freezing at 20°C min-1. Concomitantly, we also examined the effect of a commonly used cryoprotectant, dimethylsulfoxide, DMSO (10% v/v ratio) on the freezing response of HeLa and Jurkat cells. By fitting a model of water transport to the experimentally determined volumetric shrinkage data, the reference hydraulic conductivity, Lpg, (μm/min-atm) and activation energy, ELp, (kcal mol-1) were obtained. For HeLa cells, the values of Lpg ranged from 0.08 to 0.23 νm/min-atm, while ELp ranged from 10.9 to 37.4 kcal mol-1. For Jurkat cells these parameter values ranged from 0.05 to 0.16 μm/min-atm and 9.5 to 35.9 kcal mol-1. A generic optimal cooling rate equation was then used to predict the optimal rates of freezing HeLa and Jurkat cells in the presence and absence of DMSO and NPs. The post-thaw viability and apoptotic response of HeLa and Jurkat cells was further investigated by cooling cells at three rates in the presence and absence of DMSO and NPs using a commercially available controlled rate freezer. Jurkat cells treated in this manner demonstrated an increase in their adhesive properties after 18 h incubation and adhered strongly to the bottom of the culture plate. This observation prevented further analysis of Jurkat apoptotic and necrotic post-thaw responses. There was no significant effect of NPs or DMSO alone on HeLa cell viability prior to freezing. The post-thaw results from HeLa cells show that the NPs increased the measured post-freeze apoptotic response when cooled at 1°C min-1, suggesting a possible therapeutic use of NPs in cryodestructive procedures. © IOP Publishing Ltd.