Large-Scale Expansion of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Several human studies show positive signals, while research methods and sample sizes continue to develop.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent stem cells with strong immunosuppressive property that renders them an attractive source of cells for cell therapy. MSCs have been studied in multiple clinical trials to treat liver diseases, peripheral nerve damage, graft-versus-host disease, autoimmune diseases, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular damage. Millions to hundred millions of MSCs are required per patient depending on the disease, route of administration, frequency of administration, and patient body weight. Multiple large-scale cell expansion strategies have been described in the literature to fetch the cell quantity required for the therapy. In this review, bioprocessing strategies for large-scale expansion of MSCs were systematically reviewed and discussed. The literature search in Medline and Scopus databases identified 26 articles that met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review. These articles described the large-scale expansion of 7 different sources of MSCs using 4 different bioprocessing strategies, i.e., bioreactor, spinner flask, roller bottle, and multilayered flask. The bioreactor, spinner flask, and multilayered flask were more commonly used to upscale the MSCs compared to the roller bottle. Generally, a higher expansion ratio was achieved with the bioreactor and multilayered flask. Importantly, regardless of the bioprocessing strategies,

Evidence level

Several human studies show positive signals, while research methods and sample sizes continue to develop.

Browse all related research

Filter the research library by this study's title keywords, author, or publication year.