Effect of Liposome Charge and Composition on the Delivery of Trehalose into Red Blood Cells

Although the disaccharide trehalose has been shown to protect cells during freezing and desiccation when present intracellularly, a major obstacle to using intracellular sugars for biopreservation applications is the impermeability of plasma membranes. We are investigating the use of liposomes, which are synthetic, microscopic vesicles, for the intracellular delivery of stabilizing sugars into mammalian cells. Previous work has shown that the mechanism of red blood cell (RBC)–liposome interaction includes both liposome fusion with the RBC membranes, as well as tight adsorption of the vesicles onto the RBC surface. However, the fusion efficiency of liposomes was low, with only micromolar concentrations of trehalose delivered to the RBC cytosol. The purpose of this study is to enhance the efficacy of liposomes’ delivery of trehalose into RBCs with minimal detrimental effects on RBC membrane quality, by manipulating liposome physical properties and liposome–RBC incubation conditions. Charged and uncharged un...