A novel self-humidifying membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) with the addition of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) as a hygroscopic agent into anode catalyst layer was prepared to improve the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) under low humidity conditions. The MEAs were characterized by SEM, contact angles and water uptake measurements. The MEAs with addition of MCC exhibit excellent self-humidifying single cell performance, the cell temperature for self-humidification running is up to 60 degrees C. As an optimized MEA with 4 wt.% MCC in its anode catalyst layer, its current density at 0.6 V could be up to 760 mA cm(-2) under 20% of relative humidity, and remains at 680 mA cm(-2) after 22 h long time continuous testing, the attenuation of the current density is only 10%. While the current density of the blank MEA without addition of MCC degraded sharply from 300 mA cm(-2) to 110 mA cm(-2), the attenuation of the current density is high up to 70% within 2 h. Copyright (C) 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.