Resistance to Dehydration Damage in HeLa Cells Correlates with the Presence of Endogenous Heat Shock Proteins

Abstract

Stabilization of living cells during dehydration could facilitate the storage and transport of nucleated cells. HeLa cells, known for their resilience and insensitivity to environmental stresses, provide a useful platform for the investigation of resistance to dehydration-induced damage. HeLa cells from two sources [the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) and the European Collection of Cell Cultures (ECCC)] were compared with regard to their survival following vacuum-drying and the dependence of viability on drying temperature. Interestingly, a substantial difference in dehydration resistance appeared between the two cell lines dried after they were loaded with trehalose. At all temperatures tested, the ATCC cell line showed higher viability than the ECCC cell line. For both lines, viabilities decreased at elevated drying temperatures, but even when the cells were dried at 45°C, the ATCC line survived well compared to the ECCC line (27% vs. 0%, respectively, when dried to 0.3 g H2O/g dry weight). The ...