Automation of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cell culture for clinical applications

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are more desirablethan embryonicstem cells(ESCs)for clinical applications, mostly due to reduced ethical concerns, ease in expansion, cellular plasticity, and reduced potential for tumorigenesis. They have the capability to replicate as undifferentiated cells or to differentiate into bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, tendon and marrow stromal therefore, they hold great potential for cell therapies.However, for MSCs to be successfully commercialised,well-defined, reproducible and scalable manufacturing processes need to be developed since thetransition of these studies from the laboratory to industrial scale processes with consistent outputs is a majorchallenge. Since the cellsthemselves may be the final product so the quality of the manufactured cells needs to be ensured throughout the entire bioprocess.In this doctorate, the development of a robust MSCs expansion process using an automated platform was investigated. [Continues.]