Therapeutic platelets and methods

A process for processing blood platelets comprising:

• providing a preservative solution having a preservative, water, and protein;
• suspending blood platelets in the preservative solution at a concentration greater than about 108 platelets per ml. of preservative solution to produce preservative-loaded blood platelets;
• freeze-drying the preservative-loaded blood platelets;
• and
• recovering at least 75% of the freeze-dried platelets.

A process for preserving protein structure in blood platelets comprising:

• providing a preservative solution having a preservative, water and protein;
• loading blood platelets with the preservative solution to produce preservative-loaded blood platelets;
• dehydrating the preservative-loaded blood platelets while maintaining a residual water content in the blood platelets equal to or less than about 0.30 gram of residual water per gram of dry weight blood platelets to preserve protein structure of the blood platelets upon rehydrating after storage;
• storing the dehydrated preservative-loaded blood platelets;
• and
• rehydrating the stored dehydrated preservative-loaded blood platelets with water vapor to preserve protein structure of the blood platelets.

A process for loading a preservative into blood platelets comprising:

• providing a preservative solution having a preservative, water and protein;
• disposing platelets in the preservative solution for loading the preservative from the preservative solution into the platelets to produce preservative-loaded blood platelets wherein said preservative solution generally has higher glass transition temperatures than glass transition temperatures for a preservative solution having the preservative, water and no protein;
• and
• preventing a decrease in a loading efficiency gradient in the loading of the preservative into the platelets.

A process for loading a preservative into blood platelets comprising:

• providing a preservative solution having a preservative, water and protein;
• disposing platelets in the preservative solution for loading the preservative from the preservative solution into the platelets to produce preservative-loaded blood platelets wherein said preservative solution generally has higher glass transition temperatures than glass transition temperatures for a preservative solution having the preservative, water and no protein;
• and
• preventing a decrease in a loading gradient in the loading of the oligosaccharide into the platelets.