A comparison of deglycerolization processes

This study compared a standard centrifugation based method for deglycerolizing cryopreserved RBCs and a proprietary, automated method based upon hollow fiber membrane (HFM) filtration. The methods were compared by examining the characteristics (i.e. glycerol concentration, quantity of RBC and hemoglobin, osmotic fragility) of the product of each. Deglycerolization with the filtration method yielded products with final glycerol concentrations less than 1% w/v, as did the centrifugation. Deglycerolized RBC units from each process exhibited no significant difference in the osmotic fragility or in the quantity of RBCs and hemoglobin available (99% level).