
Stem cells, an emerging tool for regenerative medicine, are disparate from other cell types of our body owing to exclusive properties they embrace. Being unspecialized, these cells retain self-renewal capacity, hence regenerate their pool by cell division; symmetric or asymmetric which further leads to differentiation into diverse cell types. Based on the source of isolation, stem cells can be embryonic, fetal, or adult which can be cord blood, placental, bone marrow (BM), dental, adipose tissue, skin, etc. (1).
Among all the stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), responsible for hematopoiesis in the adult body are the utmost explored and researched one, owing to their enormous potential as well as therapeutic applications. Apart from bone marrow, which is their reservoir, HSCs can also be isolated from granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) mobilized peripheral blood. Also, it is feasible to obtain HSCs and various progenitors of the blood cells from fetal as well as embryonic tissues. Moreover, the umbilical cord blood (UCB) and placenta, generally discarded after childbirth, are rich sources of HSCs (2). Somatic cells can also become the source of HSCs by exploiting Induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs) (3). HSCs can presumptively characterize and isolated with the help of an anticipated set of clusters of differentiation antigens and cell surface marker present on their cell membrane as predicted and proven by Irving L. Weismann in 1988. These markers change consequently as HSCs get mature and differentiate into a specific set of blood lineages. Human HSCs are identified as Cluster of Differentiation (CD) 34+, CD38low/−, c-Kit−/low, CD59+, CD90+, Lin− whereas mouse HSCs are recognized as CD34low/−, CD38+, c-Kit+, SCA-1+, CD90+/low, Lin− (4).
Carrying the vital capacity to regenerate all blood cell types through making lineage-specific progenitor cells, HSCs are widely used to treat many human disorders (5). Bone marrow transplantations or Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation are HSCs based lifesaving procedures broadly used to treat disease ranging from cancer to autoimmune diseases. Subsequently, potential therapeutics of HSCs is increasing profoundly to life-threatening diseases such as autoimmune disease, leukemia, lymphoma, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple myeloma, hemophilia, diabetes and multiple sclerosis (6-8). Numerous clinical trials have been completed and still ongoing to observe the efficacy of HSCs in treating above mentioned disorders in which either whole BM, progenitors, or purified hematopoietic stem cells have been transplanted in patients and clinical improvement has been observed. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of the clinical studies has used cultured stem cells owing to ethical issues, risk of contamination, knowledge, and availability of suitable media besides culture conditions, etc.
The dynamic implication of HSCs for therapeutics instigates concern to combat the enormous demand of HSCs. Furthermore, whether we are investigating stem cell for fundamental research purpose markedly testing the toxicity of compounds, cancer research, vaccine production, drug screening, and discovery or for future therapeutics, a prerequisite is to culture stem cells under
Stem cell culturing encompasses optimized protocols as well as good quality reagents; however, the most crucial requirement is media which supplies essential components like glucose, vitamins, amino acids, etc., which are vital constituents for the metabolism of stem cells to sustain growth and proliferation (10). Media for stem cell culture not only able to provide elementary nutrients to these cells, but it should also be suited for culture conditions. Pertaining to a fine balance between stem cell self-renewal and lineage commitment, stem cell expansion, as well as differentiation under the
Large numbers of basal media are accessible to culture stem cells, primarily serum-free, although we can include or exclude serum as well as other growth factors based on the requirement. The quality as well as quantity of the serum used in stem cell culture media play a significant role and affect the outputs. Moreover, growth and differentiation factors which are generally recombinant proteins such as Interleukin-3 (IL-3), stem cells factor (SCF), thrombopoietin (TPO), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factors and erythropoietin, also regulate the survival and self-renewal of HSCs along with proliferation and differentiation (12). These growth factors have an enormous impact on HSCs and their purity, excellence and concentration decide the fate of cultured HSCs (13). Studies of the above-said cytokines used in HSCs culture under
DMEM is one of the widely used modified versions of Basal Media Eagle’s (BME), which comprise of four-fold higher concentrations of vitamins, amino acids, and other supplements than BME. The original formulation of DMEM used 1000 mg/L glucose, which is predominantly utilized to culture mouse embryonic cells; various modifications of this medium is present nowadays based on the combination of glucose, L-glutamine and sodium pyruvate. Scientists utilized Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (DMEM) supplemented with valproic acid and 10% Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) to culture CD133+lin−CD45− hematopoietic cells isolated from umbilical cord blood. In an another study, DMEM supplemented with FBS (15%), hIL-6 (10 ng/ml), mSCF (100 ng/ml) and mIL-3 (6 ng/ml) has been utilized to culture mouse bone marrow cells (18).
Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) 1640 media primarily developed by Moore et al., at Roswell Park Memorial Institute, uses a bicarbonate buffering system besides glutathione as a reducing agent. RPMI-1640 has been exploited to culture and increase the yield of Peripheral Blood (PB) mononuclear cells for 5∼7 days. The media was supplemented with L-glutamine (200 mmol), 2-beta mercaptoethanol (50-mmol), gentamicin (20
Although the above discussed basal media are extensively used by numerous stem cell researchers globally, still, precision in stem cell culture requirement has increased tremendously for the last two decades, henceforth necessity of specialized stem cell culture media increases. Apart from the above-mentioned basal media, various specialized media are also currently employed for the HSCs culture, self-renewal, and differentiation. Serum, mostly an animal product utilized along with basal media may pose hazards while culturing human stem cells, especially for therapeutic purposes urges serum-free media utilization. Stem pro-34 SFM one of the specialized serum-free media which is comprised of stem pro basal liquid media along with frozen stem pro-nutrient supplements and is extensively used to support BM, PB, or Cord Blood (CB) hematopoietic stem cells culture, expansion and differentiation (24). Numerous scientific studies have been published where this media has been used to culture hematopoietic stem cells. In one of the study, the CD34−/lowc-Kit+Sca-1+ lineage bone marrow cells have been cultured using StemPro-34 SFM supplemented with 0.05 mM 2-
A substantial amount of hematopoietic stem cells is imperative for both stem cell researches as well as for therapeutics and can be acquired through
Table 1 . List of different culture media along with supplements for expansion of stem cells from various sources
Media | Cell source | Cytokines combinations and supplements | Phenotypic | No. of cells | Passage day | Fold expansion | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SFEMa | UCBb | 100 U/ml pen/strep+ 2 mM L-glut+ 25 ng/ml SCFc + 25 ng/ml ILd-6 +25 ng/ml TPOe + 25 ng/ml FLTf ligand | CDg 34+/CD 38+ | 1.0×104/well | 5 days | ND | (26) |
Stem Pro 34SFMh | UCBb | 10% FBSi+100 ng/mlPen/Strep+ 2 mM L-glutamine +hILd-3 peptide 8+50 ng/ml TPOe+ 200 ng/ml rhFLTf-3 | CD 34+ | 7.3×104 | 7 days | 19-fold | (27) |
XVIVO 10 | PBMCj | 1% human serum albumin+ 50 ng/ml SCFc + 30 ng/ml FLTf3-ligand+ TPOe + 5-50 ng/ml human ILd -3 | CD 34+ | 2×104 | 2 to 4 days | 2.5-fold | (28) |
IMDMk | UCBb | 20% FBSi and 5 ng/ml Sel + 50 ng/ml TPOe + 25 | CD 34+ | 1×105 | 5 days | 20-fold | (29) |
SFEMa | BMn | 10% FBSi+ 1% pen/strep +100 ng/ml FLTf-3 + 100 ng/ml TPOe+ 100 ng/ml SCFc | CD 34+ | 1×105 | 24 hours | ND | (30) |
HPGM° 1640 | PBMCj | 10 FBSi +100 U/ml Pen/Strep + 100 ng/ml SCFc + 20 ng/ml ILd-3+30 ng/ml | CD 34+ | 2.5×105 | Up to 30 days | 8-fold | (31) |
aSerum free expansion medium, bUmbilical cord blood, cStem cell factor, dInterleukin, eThrombopoietin, fFMS like tyrosine kinase, gCluster of differentiation, hSerum free media, iFetal bovine serum, jPeripheral blood mononuclear cells, kIscove’s modified dulbecco’s medium, lSelenium, mFolic acid, nBone marrow, °Hematopoietic growth media.
Hematopoietic Progenitor Growth Media (HPGM) is another specialized expansion media, which is xeno-free media, includes albumin, recombinant insulin, and pasteurized transferrin. HPGM is well suited for the expansion, growth, and differentiation of HSCs as well as hematopoietic progenitor cells from various sources (35). In one of the studies done by Kishimoto et al (36), HPGM media supplemented with 1× antibiotics/antimycotic solution, FBS (4%) and cytokine cocktail of TPO (20 ng/ml), Flt-3L (20 ng/ml) and SCF (10 ng/ml) with has been used for the culturing of 1×105 BM cells of the mouse/12 well plate, coated with low molecular weight heparin/protamine microparticles. The cells were cultured for 8 days under the above-said culture condition, and after 8 days there were 11-fold expansions of CD 34+ stem cells. The coated plates enhanced the expansion of CD 34+ stem cells by controlling the release of cytokines.
An auxiliary specialized media for HSCs expansion under
X-VIVO hematopoietic cell medium is a specialized Serum-free chemically defined media, devoid of any exogenous growth factors, undefined or artificial stimulators, provides a balanced and complete environment for culturing HSCs (40). In one of the stem cell expansion studies, CD34+ PB mononuclear cells have been cultured to expand into X-VIVO 10 media supplemented with human SCF (50 ng/ml), 1% serum albumin and cytokine cocktail of human IL-3, Flt-3L, and TPO (28).
Each type of stem cell requires an exclusive culture medium supplemented with specific growth factors to sustain cell proliferation and differentiation into precise lineages. HSCs differentiate in all mature blood cell lineages and this differentiation process is earnestly regulated by intracellular signaling pathways which in turn governed by growth factors and cytokines. Various scientific studies involving
In one of the granulocyte-monocyte to dendritic cells differentiation study, BM cells were cultured in RPMI-1640, supplemented with 1× streptomycin/penicillin, FBS (10%) and GM-CSF (20 ng/ml) for 6 days. After 6 days the induced cells were cultured in IMDM supplemented with 1x penicillin/streptomycin, 10% FBS, Flt-3L 200 ng/ml, mercaptoethanol (50
X-VIVO 10, a widely HSCs expansion media can also be utilized by expanding cells for differentiation purposes. In a study conducted by Stec et al (47), X-VIVO 10 media supplemented with 4% of fetal calf serum (FCS), TPO (15 ng/ml), Flt-3L (30 ng/ml), SCF (50 ng/ml), IL-3 (30 ng/ml) was used as the first step for the expansion of CB hematopoietic CD34+ mononuclear cells. Every 3 to 5 days the cells were sub-cultured and enriched with fresh media. These expanded cells were later differentiated into monocytes by using IMDM media supplemented with SCF (25 ng/ml), IL-3 (30 ng/ml), 20% FCS, monocyte colony-stimulating factor (30 ng/ml), Flt-3L (30 ng/ml) for 3∼14 days.
Methylcellulose is also one of the varieties of diverse media available for
Stem cells are an emerging therapeutic tool to cure numerous life-threatening human ailments. With escalating research and clinical use, rises the need for a large amount of stem cells, which can significantly fulfill through stem cell culture under
Here in this review we have summarized diverse kinds of media available and used by several scientific groups for
Table 2 . Different stem cell media and their commercial suppliers
Media | Name of the suppliers/company |
---|---|
AIM V (19) | Invitrogen |
DMEMa (21) | Lonza, Thermofischer, Hyclone, Biochrom, Sigma-Aldrich, Cellgro, GIBCO Invitrogen, STEMCELL Technologies, BioWhittaker, PAN Biotech etc. |
LGMc-3 (23) | Clonetics Corp., Walkersville |
StemPro CDd 34+ (25) | Thermofischer, Gibco |
Stem X-VIVO (28) | Lonza |
IMDMb (29) | Thermo Fischer, Lonza, Himedia, Gibco, ATCC, Life Technologies |
Stemspan SFEMe and SFEM II (30) | STEMCELL Technologies |
HPGMf (31) | Lonza |
Stemline and Stemline II (38) | Sigma |
Alpha-MEMg (41) | American Type Culture Collection, BioWhittaker, Gemini Bio-Products, HaartBio Ltd, Gibco, Lonza, Mediatech, Irvine Scientific and Sigma etc. |
RPMIh (45) | GIBCO Invitrogen, HiMedia, Biochrom, BioWhitaker, Cambrex, STEMCELL Technologies, Cellgro, Biowest, CRUK, HyClone, ATCC, Irvine, Lonza, Gibco etc. |
aDulbecco’s modified eagle’s media, bIscove’s modified dulbecco’s medium, cLymphocyte growth factor, dCluster of differentiation, eserum free expansion media, fHematopoietic growth media, gMinimal essential medium, hRoswell park memorial institute.
We thank Centre for Medical Biotechnology Maharshi Dayanand University Rohtak for providing support to accomplish this work.
The authors have no conflicting financial interest.
PY collected literature and wrote the manuscript. RV edited and revised the manuscript. AB revised the manuscript. RB designed, wrote, edited and prepared the manuscript for submission. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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