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Cytomatrix |
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Maintenance and Preservation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells in the Absence of Exogenous Cytokines in a Novel Long Term Bioreactor |
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N. Banu, J. Bagley, M. Rosenzweig, H. Kim, B. Ehring and M. Pykett
Cytomatrix, Cambridge, MA 02139; New England Regional Primate Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA |
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Stable, long term culturing of hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) has presented many challenges historically. Recently, a novel, three dimensional, porous biomaterial termed CellfoamTM with physical properties similar to the in vivo bone marrow microenvironment has been developed. In this study, we describe findings demonstrating the CellfoamTM supports HPCs viability and multipotency in the absence of exogenous cytokines at time points beyond other systems, including conventional fibronectin-coated plastic dishes and bone marrow stroma (BMS) cultures as well as other three dimensional devices. In the absence of supplemented cytokines, standard BMS and plastic culture systems are unable to support HSC viability beyond about 2 months, whereas CellfoamTM and a three dimensional ceramic device maintain HSC viability for up to 5 months. Colony formation studies demonstrated hat cells from BMS or fibronectin-coated plastic dishes cultures had lost colony forming ability after 4 weeks and cells from ceramic cultures had lost colony forming activity after 3 months. Conversely, cells from CellfoamTM cultures retained colony forming ability for up to 4 months. Similarly, LTC-IC and CAFC content was significantly lower in plastic, BMS and ceramic cultures than in CellfoamTM over such extended periods. These findings suggest that the CellfoamTM bioreactor may improve the in vitro preservation of stem cells and may afford improvements in the ability to utilize HPCs ex vivo.   |
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