Human alternatives to foetal bovine serum for the expansion of human adipose-derived stem cells

Abstract

The use of human adipose derived stem/stromal cells (hASCs) in a therapeutic setting is has increased research in the field with various clinical trials currently being conducted (REF).However, the use of foetal bovine serum (FBS) as a standard hASC culture media supplement poses challenges towards a good manufacturing practices (GMP) compliant therapeutic hASC product. Human blood component alternatives to FBS for cell culture serum supplementation were investigated for compliance to good manufacturing practices (GMP) when considering hASCs for therapeutic use. A head-to-head comparison of five human alternatives to FBS for hASC culture medium supplementation was completed. hASCs were expanded in five human alternatives and FBS, and the morphology, proliferation, viability, and retention of adipogenic potential of ASCs were investigated and compared. All human alternatives resulted in faster proliferation compared to FBS. Pooled human platelet lysate (pHPL) and platelet-rich-plasma (PRP) were identified as the best alternatives for hASC expansion in vitro as they resulted in faster hASC proliferation than human serum (HS), fresh-frozen plasma (FFP), platelet-poor plasma (PPP), and FBS. hASCs were able to differentiate into adipocytes in pHPL and PRP (the two human alternatives resulting in the fastest proliferation) and FBS. The study results lead to a conclusion that it is possible to use human alternatives to FBS for in vitro hASC expansion as the first step towards producing a GMP compliant hASC product for use in regenerative medicine and cellular therapy approaches.