Cryopreservation and post-thaw differentiation of monocytes enabled by macromolecular cryoprotectants which restrict intracellular ice formation.

ABSTRACT: THP-1 is a monocytic cell line which can differentiate into macrophage and dendritic cells, widely used in immunology. Immune cells are particularly sensitive to cryopreservation, leading to low recovery and/or reduced differentiation capacity compared to non-frozen cells. Current cryopreservation protocols are unsuitable to cryopreserve THP-1 cells in 'assay-ready' format, due to the time and resource intensive culturing steps required post-thaw to recover functional cells. We report the cryopreservation of THP-1 cells in vial and multi-well plate format, with significantly enhanced recovery compared to commercial cryoprotectants. This was achieved using macromolecular cryoprotectants (polyampholytes and ice nucleators) which doubled post-thaw recovery relative to DMSO-alone and improved

SUBMITTER: Gonzalez-Martinez N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12147442 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature