Improved self-renewal and differentiation potentials of mesenchymal Stem Cells by HPL-based xeno free Cell Rev™ mSC ExHQ 2.0

Abstract

Background & Aim High-quality production and manufacturing of multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) depend upon properties of culturing milieu of MSCs. Most importantly, the surrounding media must enhance self-renewal properties and retain differentiation potentials of MSCs namely the ability to turn into adipocytes, osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and others. Moreover, MSCs immunomodulatory advantages must be preserved in order for MSCs to be a therapeutic source of cell therapy. Common practices rely on the use of fetal bovine serum (FBS), dubbed standard media (STD), to support the expansion and of MSCs in vitro. Yet, FBS comes with intrinsic risks such as foreign proteins of bovine sources, viral or prion contamination and poses more possibilities of immune rejection, and reduces the immunomodulatory privileges of MSCs. To achieve a higher quality of biocompatibility and consistency for clinical applications, we formulated a critical recipe for MSCs cultured ex vivo to enhance their self-renewal and differentiation capacities. Methods, Results & Conclusion We sought to minimize the intrinsic risks from sera- and animal-free media while maximizing the critical features of MSCs. We, therefore, proposed a human platelet lysate-based, serum-free media, MSC ExHQ Cell Rev™ 2.0 media that can be used to proliferate MSCs while retaining their multipotent differentiation potentials. Here, we compare the properties of MSCs cultured in standard media (STD) versus in MSC ExHQ Cell Rev™ 2.0 media. MSCs grown in ExHQ Cell Rev™ 2.0 media show many improved qualities: 1) the effectiveness of colony-forming units (CFU) was 10-folds higher than STD, 2) the growth rate was 5-folds greater than STD. This was true up to passage 10, 3) differentiation to the 3 lineages were improved more than 3-folds, and 4) STD media causes overexpression of MSC negative marker, CD19 while ExHQ media does not. These data illustrate that MSC ExHQ Cell Rev™ 2.0 media is of notable choice for enhanced self-renewal and differentiation properties of MSCs.