Treahlose Loaded, Freeze-Dried Rehydrated Human Platelets Maintain and Regulate Their Intracellular pH.

Maintenance of intracellular pH, a critical cellular function, is required for generation of proton gradients and platelet response to agonist. Previously, we have demonstrated that freeze-dried rehydrated platelets are able to respond to agonists generate a rise in intracellular calcium (Auh et al. 2004 Calcium mobilization in freeze-dried platelets. Cell Preservation Technology in press) and maintain normal membrane and protein secondary structure (Wolkers et al. 2002 Towards a clinical application of freeze-dried platelets. Cell Preservation Technology 1:175–188). As part of our ongoing studies of trehalose loaded freeze-dried rehydrated human platelets we examined their ability to maintain their intracellular pH. Platelet proton regulation is achieved through the Na-H exchanger (NHE1) which is dependent on the concentration of extracellular sodium. Freeze-dried and fresh control human platelets were loaded with the pH ratio dye bis-carboxyfluorescein acetomethyl ester (BCECF-AM), washed over a Sepharose 2B column and examined by fluorescence spectroscopy. Fresh and freeze-dried rehydrated human platelets maintained virtually identical resting intracellular pH, 7.273 +/− 0.015, and 7.270 +/− 0.034 respectively. Both cell types responded to increased extracellular sodium by increasing their pH in a virtually identical manner. The addition of 0.5U/ml thrombin (in the presence of 135 mM NaCl) resulted in an initial acidification and subsequent alkalinzation of both fresh and freeze-dried rehydrated cells. Prior to the addition of thrombin both cell populations had an [pH]_i of 6.9, while after thrombin stimulation the pH rose to 7.012 for fresh cells and 7.001 for freeze-dried rehydrated cells. Thrombin stimulation in the absence of extracellular sodium resulted in a significant acidification of both cell populations to a final pH of 6.6 for fresh cells and 6.7 for freeze-dried rehydrated cells. Specific inhibition of the NHE1 transporter by 5-(N-methyl-N-isobutyl) amiloride (MIA) completely abolished the response of all cells to increasing concentrations of sodium. In the parallel control experiment both freeze-dried and fresh cells acidified to pH 6.2 and incubated with 135mM NaCl responded by generating a rise in intracellular pH to 7.1. These results demonstrate that freeze-dried rehydrated platelets are able to maintain normal pH homeostasis and respond to agonist in a specific manner. Studies funded by DARPA.