title: Expansion and hepatic differentiation of rat multipotent adult progenitor cells in microcarrier suspension culture.
abstract: Many potential applications of stem cells require large quantities of cells, especially those involving large organs such as the liver. For such applications, a scalable reactor system is desirable to ensure a reliable supply of sufficient quantities of differentiation competent or differentiated cells. We employed a microcarrier culture system for the expansion of undifferentiated rat multipotent adult progenitor cells (rMAPC) as well as for directed differentiation of these cells to hepatocyte-like cells. During the 4-day expansion culture, cell concentration increased by 85-fold while expression level of pluripotency markers were maintained, as well as the MAPC differentiation potential. Directed differentiation into hepatocyte-like cells on the microcarriers themselves gave comparable results as observed with cells cultured in static cultures. The cells expressed several mature hepatocyte-lineage genes and asialoglycoprotein receptor-1 (ASGPR-1) surface protein, and secreted albumin and urea. Microcarrier culture thus offers the potential of large-scale expansion and differentiation of stem cells in a more controlled bioreactor environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Subramanian
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Verfaillie
authors.forename: W S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037263:Asialoglycoprotein Receptor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D048708:Cell Growth Processes / Q000502:physiology; D002460:Cell Line; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D006651:Histocytochemistry; D008954:Models, Biological; D039902:Multipotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D037263:Asialoglycoprotein Receptor; D015415:Biomarkers