Title : Next generation designer culture media for cell therapy balancing energy homeostasis and proliferative capacities enabling long-term in vitro expansion of epithelial cells
Abstract:
Since inception, CELLnTEC is dedicated to developing fully defined, animal- and human component-free media to culture epithelial cells for research and cell therapy that closely mimic the in vivo state. This is achieved by protecting the ground state of cellular self-renewal with extrinsic and selective small molecule activators or inhibitors. Withdrawal of these factors supports differentiation. We have now continued R&D to engineer the next generation of designer media by specifically targeting pathways balancing energy homeostasis and proliferative capacities. Compared to our standard media, the new proprietary medium supports human keratinocyte growth in a superior way as was tested for cells from four different donors grown on plastic and without feeders. Remarkably, survival of the human keratinocytes could be extended up to >90 population doublings. Starting from fresh adult skin, cells in P0 exhibited impeccable morphology and increased colony forming efficiency. The latter was tested in a direct comparison with our own standard media and those of other leading commercial providers. In P1, the human keratinocytes plated in the new medium showed oexcellent colony forming efficiency, outcompeting all other tested media by at least 1.5-fold. Superior isolation efficiency together with increased proliferation rates and especially extended longevity allows for rapid cell amplification, which likely also applies for epithelial airway, bladder, or cornea cells. Since the human keratinocytes are grown in a fully defined, animal component-free cell culture medium, they also are perfectly suited for applications in cell therapy and regenerative medicine.
