OBJECTIVETo investigate the feasibility of umbilical cord blood plasma (UCP) as a replacement for fetal bovine serum (FBS) for culturing mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) derived from umbilical cord, and to observe the supporting effects of these cells (served as a feeder layer) on ex vivo expanding of human umbilical cord blood CD34(+) cells.

METHODSUmbilical cord blood (UCB) units were suitable if the Guangzhou cord blood bank donor selection criteria strictly were fulfilled. UCP were ready to use after the collection from the plasma depletion/reduction during the processing and pooling of suitable UCB units (at least 30 units were screened for pathogens and microorganisms, and qualified). Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSC) were harvested from the umbilical cord tissue of health full-term newborns after delivery by enzyme digestion and divided into 3 groups: group 1 and 2 were cultured in the presence of DMEM/F12 containing either FBS or UCP; and group 3 was cultured in serum-free medium (StemPro® MSC SFM CTS™). Morphology, proliferation and surface marker expression were examined by flow cytometry, and the differentiation toward adipogenic and osteogenic lineages was used for investigating the effect of media on UCMSC after 3-5 passages. Next, the cells cultured in the three different media were cryopreserved and thawed, then prepared as feeder layers with the name of UCMSC(FBS), UCMSC(UCP), and UCMSC(SFM), respectively. The CD34⁺ cells were separated from UCB by magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS) and divided into 4 groups cultured in StemPro(-34) SFM medium added with hematopoietic cytokine combination (StemSpan® CC100). The control group included only CD34⁺ cells as group A (blank control) and experimental groups included UCMSC(FBS) + CD34⁺ cells as group B, UCMSC(UCP) + CD34⁺ cells as group C, UCMSC(SFM) + CD34⁺ cells as group D, and cells in all groups were cultured ex vivo for 7 days. The nucleated cell (NC) number was counted by cell counter, CD34⁺ cells were measured by flow cytometry, and clonogenic assay was conducted at day 0 and 7 of culture. The expansion efficiency was assessed.

RESULTSThe morphology (spindle-shaped and plastic-adherent), the immunophenotype (high positive percentage of CD73, CD90, CD105 and CD166) and the differentiation potential (osteogenic and adipogenic) were almost indistinguishable among the cells cultured in any of these three media except for the expression of CD105 in group 3 (serum-free medium) was lower than that in other 2 groups (P < 0.05). UCMSC grown in UCP medium demonstrated significantly higher proliferation rates than that in media containing FBS or commercial serum-free supplement (P < 0.05). After co-culture for 7 days, the CD34⁺ cell percentage decreased in all the groups, while NC were amplified effectively and the CD34⁺ cell number increased with the same order as group C or D group B or A (control group) (P < 0.05). As compared with the colony-forming unit (CFU) number at day 0, there was no significant difference in the expansion multiple between group C and D, while the expansion of CFU in group C were higher than that in group B and A.

CONCLUSIONThe UCP can be used as a better animal-free serum supplement for growth, maintenance and differentiation of UCMSC, thus would be a safe choice for clinical-scale production of human MSC.