Dissolvable Gelatin‐Based Microcarriers Generated through Droplet Microfluidics for Expansion and Culture of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells. Issue 3 (11th December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ng, Ee Xien; Wang, Ming; Neo, Shu Hui; Tee, Ching Ann; Chen, Chia‐Hung; Van Vliet, Krystyn J.
• Is Part Of: Biotechnology journal. Volume 16:Issue 3(2021)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2020-12-11
• Subjects: cell manufacturing -- mesenchymal stromal cells -- microcarrier -- multipotency -- regenerative medicine; Biotechnology -- Periodicals; 660.605
• DOI: 10.1002/biot.202000048
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1860-6768

Abstract

Abstract: Microcarriers are synthetic particles used in bioreactor‐based cell manufacturing of anchorage‐dependent cells to promote proliferation at efficient physical volumes, mainly by increasing the surface area‐to‐volume ratio. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are adherent cells that are used for numerous clinical trials of autologous and allogeneic cell therapy, thus requiring avenues for large‐scale cell production at efficiently low volumes and cost. Here, a dissolvable gelatin‐based microcarrier is developed for MSC expansion. This novel microcarrier shows comparable cell attachment efficiency and proliferation rate when compared to several commercial microcarriers, but with higher harvesting yield due to the direct dissolution of microcarrier particles and thus reduced cell loss at the cell harvesting step. Furthermore, gene expression and in vitro differentiation suggest that MSCs cultured on gelatin microcarriers maintain trilineage differentiation with similar adipogenic differentiation efficiency and higher chondrogenic and osteogenic differentiation efficiency when compared to MSCs cultured on 2D planar polystyrene tissue culture flask; on the contrary, MSCs cultured on conventional microcarriers appear to be bipotent along osteochondral lineages whereby adipogenic differentiation potential is impeded. These results suggest that these gelatin microcarriers are suitable for MSC culture and expansion, and can also potentially be extended for other types of anchorage‐dependent cells. Abstract : Microcarrier‐based cell expansion has low cell recovery efficiency during harvesting step. In this work, a gelatin‐based dissolvable microcarrier is developed for cell expansion. High cell yield is achieved through direct dissolution of microcarrier for cell recovery. In addition, mesenchymal stromal cells expanded on gelatin microcarrier maintain trilineage differentiation potency. Thus, gelatin microcarrier can be a promising tool for cell manufacturing.