Cell processing engineering for ex-vivo expansion of hematopoietic cells

The cell processing engineering for ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic cells is reviewed. All hematopoietic cells of different lineages and/or at various stages of differentiation are derived from the same precursor, pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells. Bone marrow stromal cells promote and regulate the self-renewal, commitment, differentiation, and proliferation of stem cells and progenitors through their secreted extracellular matrices and cytokine environment in the hematopoietic micro-environment. Although stroma-mediated haematopoiesis has been studied in vitro using the Dexter culture system in tissue culture flasks, haematopoiesis in the Dexter culture system is almost limited to a granulocyte lineage and the system could not expand primitive cells. The addition of large amounts of cytokines to the culture of hematopoietic cells enabled their expansion, but is too expensive. Some clonal stromal cell lines have been established from the Dexter culture of murine bone marrow cells in order to simplify and stimulate the ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic cells. In order to solve the problem regarding the usage of exogeneic stromal cell lines, a novel membrane-separated co-culture system, in which stromal cells adhere onto the lower surface of a porous membrane and hematopoietic cells are incubated on the upper surface of the membrane, was proposed. In order to mimic the contact between stromal and hematopoietic cells in vivo in the bone marrow, several types of three-dimensional (3-D) culture of hematopoietic cells were developed. The 3-D co-culture of hematopoietic cells with spatial development of stromal cells in non-woven fabrics enabled the expansion of progenitors without cytokine addition. Progenitors in cord blood mononucleated cells were also successfully expanded without the addition in the 3-D co-culture with primary human bone marrow stromal cells in 3-D. Heparin addition to the 3-D co-culture and coating the non-woven fabrics with N-(O-Beta-(6-O-sulfogalactopyranosyl)-6-oxy-hexyl)-3,5-bis(dodecyloxy)-benzamide further increased the number of progenitors.