Efficient GMP compliant expansion of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) from umbilical cord, bone marrow and adipose tissue using a closed cultivation system.

Background & Aim Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) hold great promise for clinical use and cell therapy applications and can be isolated from multiple tissue, e.g. bone marrow (BM), umbilical cord (UC) or adipose tissue (AT). As there is a high number of clinical trials and applications using MSCs, quality and safety of the resulting cellular products are indispensable. The xeno-free MSC-Brew GMP Medium following the recommendations of USP on ancillary materials enables a standardized expansion and culture of MSC from different tissue sources. To increase the level of process standardization and product safety we developed the CliniMACS Prodigy® Adherent Cell Culture System for GMP compliant isolation and cultivation of adherent cells using a closed single used tubing set. The process includes the flexible combination of the following modules: - Density Gradient Centrifugation (DGC) - Surface Coating - Inoculation - Culture - Media Change - Harvest Here we show that MSCs from different tissue sources (AT, BM, UC) can be expanded and passaged using the CliniMACS Prodigy® Adherent Cell Culture System from primary tissue or single-cell suspensions combining the process modules in a flexible way. Methods, Results & Conclusion BM-MSCs were isolated via DGC and subsequent adherence to plastic using semi-automatic feeding, harvesting and reseeding procedures. AT-MSCs as well as UC-MSCs were isolated and expanded from single-cell suspensions obtained after enzymatic digestion. UC was digested using an optimized and automated procedure using the gentle MACSTM Dissociator. Subsequently, MSCs were isolated from single cell suspension using the flexible cultivation procedure of the CliniMACS Prodigy® Adherent Cell Culture System. Resulting cells displayed an MSC specific phenotype as defined by the ISCT consortium. Furthermore MSCs revealed their immunomodulatory potential as assessed by in vitro assay and multi-color flow cytometric analysis. With the CliniMACS Prodigy®, MSCs can be expanded in large scales, thus providing high numbers of cells for consecutive clinical applications.