suitable MC choice and should therefore always be investigated in

relation to one another, while Muoio et al. [46] were able to show

that parallel development of MC and chemically defined, serum-

free hMSC expansion medium resulted in enhanced cell attach-

ment, improving the expansion process. Hence, the development

of new chemically defined and serum-free hMSC media will likely

result in the creation of novel MCs specifically tailored to be used in

tandem. To this end, selecting the appropriate MC type for a

particular expansion approach and optimizing the attachment

phase in the bioreactor is as important to the development of the

hMSC cultivation process as the separation of the cells from the

MCs during harvest.

1.3

General

Procedure for and

Results of the Serum-

and Xeno-Free

Expansion of Human

Mesenchymal Stem

Cells from Adipose

Tissue in the BioBLU®

As shown in Fig. 2a, the stem cell expansions were realized using

cells from a working cell bank (WCB), which had been previously

adapted to the culture medium used in the subsequent experi-

ments. Inoculum preparation for all spinner flask (see Subheading

3.2) and bioreactor cultivations (see Subheading 3.3) was per-

formed using T75-Flasks (see Subheading 3.1), which yielded an

average of 8  106 cells per flask with a viability of 97.5% after

3 days, corresponding to an approximate doubling time of 21 h.

Following harvest, the cells of four flasks were pooled to produce

the inoculum. Here, we would like to point out that, with regard to

Working Cell Bank

(WCB)

1

Inoculum production

(in T-flasks)

2

Cell expansions

(Spinner flasks or BioBLU)

3

Cell harvest

4

Cell purification

5

Cell freezing and

storage

6

Screening for the optimum medium-

microcarrier combination

(multiwell plates, spinner flasks)

Spinner flask: Fluid dynamic

characterization and determination of

the suspension criteria, optimization of

cell attachment and harvest efficiency

BioBLU: Fluid dynamic characterization

and determination of the suspension

criteria

(A)

(B)

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1

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m

(

i

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2

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4

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6

Fig. 2 A general overview of the steps to be taken for the successful expansion of hMSC cells: which includes

(a) the gradatim approach to the cultivation procedure as described in this book chapter and (b) the

prerequisite experiments, which need to be performed prior to the expansion cultivations

Mesenchymal Stem Cell Expansion at Benchtop-Scale

89