title: Post-thaw non-cultured and post-thaw cultured equine cord blood mesenchymal stromal cells equally suppress lymphocyte proliferation in vitro.
abstract: Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are receiving increased attention for their non-progenitor immunomodulatory potential. Cryopreservation is commonly used for long-term storage of MSC. Post-thaw MSC proliferation is associated with a lag-phase in vitro. How this lag-phase affect MSC immunomodulatory properties is unknown. We hypothesized that in vitro there is no difference in lymphocyte suppression potential between quick-thawed cryopreserved equine cord blood (CB) MSC immediately included in mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) and same MSC allowed post-thaw culture time prior to inclusion in MLR. Cryopreserved CB-MSC from five unrelated foals were compared using two-way MLR. For each of the five unrelated MSC cultures, paired MLR assays of MSC allowed five days of post-thaw culture and MSC included in MLR assay immediately post-thawing were evaluated. We report no difference in the suppression of lymphocyte proliferation by CB-MSC that had undergone post-thaw culture and MSC not cultured post-thaw (p<0.0001). Also, there was no inter-donor variability between the lymphocyte suppressive properties of MSC harvested from the five different donors (p = 0.13). These findings suggest that cryopreserved CB-MSC may have clinical utility immediately upon thawing. One implication hereof is the possibility of using cryopreserved CB-MSC at third party locations without the need for cell culture equipment or competencies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Studies, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Lynn B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tessier
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Studies, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Judith B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Koenig
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada; Department of Clinical Studies, Orthopaedic Research Lab, Aarhus University, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Thomas G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Koch
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D015925:Cryopreservation; D006736:Horses; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007959:Lymphocyte Culture Test, Mixed / Q000379:methods*; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000276:immunology*