Open Access

ARTICLE

Numerical Evaluation of Residual Water Content after Freezing during the Lyophilization of Platelets

Shaozhi Zhang, Ruoyi Xie, Mengjie Xu, Guangming Chen^*

Key Laboratory of Refrigeration and Cryogenic Technology of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

* Corresponding Author: Guangming Chen. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Bioheat Transfer in Micro and Macro Scales)

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2020, 16(6), 1177-1189. https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2020.010352

Received 28 February 2020; Accepted 12 October 2020; Issue published 17 December 2020

Abstract

Pre-freezing is an important stage in freeze-drying processes. For the lyophilization of a cell, freezing not only plays a role for primary dehydration, but it also determines the amount of residual (intracellular or extracellular) water, which in turn can influence the solution properties and the choice of operation parameters. The freezing of human platelets in lyoprotectant solution is theoretically investigated here. A two-parameter model and an Arrhenius expression are used to describe cell membrane permeability and its temperature dependency. It is assumed that the intracellular solution is composed of four components: sodium chloride, trehalose, serum protein and water, while the extracellular solution consists of three components. Non-ideal solution behaviors are predicted using measured data. The concentration of maximally freeze-concentrated solution is estimated on the basis of an assumption of solute hydration. The impacts of lyoprotectant composition and extracellular sub-cooling on intracellular supercooling and residual water content in the cell are analyzed. The values of activation energy of hydraulic permeability at low temperatures are tested to study their impact on the critical cooling rate. As the mass fraction extracellular lyoprotectant (trehalose+bovineserum albumin) increases from 5 wt% to 20 wt%, the intracellular water content at the end of freezing does not change, but the intracellular solution undergoes much higher super-cooling degree. Increasing the mass ratio of trehalose to bovine serum albumin does not change the intracellular water content, but can mitigate intracellular super-cooling. While 0.05 mol/kg trehalose is loaded into platelet, the total quantity of residual water at the end of freezing may raise by 4.93%. The inclusion of dimethyl sulfoxide (Me2SO) in protectant may bring negative impacts to the drying stage by increasing the residual water content and lowering the drying temperature.

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