Measurement of Molecular Mobility in Mammalian Cells

Preservation of mammalian cells requires establishing a reversible stasis condition by reducing the intra/extracellular molecular mobility ensuring reduced chemical reaction and deterioration rates. Molecular mobility may be reduced by various techniques. For example, in cryopreservation, mobility within and surrounding the cell is reduced through freezing the free water that constitutes 70–90% of the cell’s composition. In dried-state preservation applied successfully to preserve seeds, pharmacological materials and foodstuff (mimicking the anhydrobiosis phenomenon seen in nature), reduction in molecular mobility is established by removing intra/extracellular water. Certain carbohydrates (such as trehalose and sucrose) can be artificially uploaded into mammalian cells to replace the removed water and to form an intra/extracellular glass. In this research, a fluorescent rotor is utilized to determine the changes in intracellular molecular mobility during carbohydrate uploading of mammalian cells. It was shown that using this technique, it is feasible to make real-time mobility measurements at a single cell level.