title: Biobanking of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells: Future Strategy to Facilitate Clinical Applications.
abstract: Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), a type of adult stem cells that hold great potential in clinical applications (e.g., regenerative medicine and cell-based therapy) due to their ability to differentiate into multiple types of specialized cells and secrete soluble factors which can initiate tissue repair and regulate immune response. hMSCs need to be expanded in vitro or cryopreserved to obtain sufficient cell numbers required for clinical applications. However, long-term in vitro culture-expanded hMSCs may raise some biosafety concerns (e.g., chromosomal abnormality and malignant transformation) and compromised functional properties, limiting their use in clinical applications. To avoid those adverse effects, it is essential to cryopreserve hMSCs at early passage and pool them for off-the-shelf use in clinical applications. However, the existing cryopreservation methods for hMSCs have some notable limitations. To address these limitations, several approaches have to be taken in order to produce healthy and efficacious cryopreserved hMSCs for clinical trials, which remains challenging to date. Therefore, a noteworthy amount of resources has been utilized in research in optimization of the cryopreservation methods, development of freezing devices, and formulation of cryopreservation media to ensure that hMSCs maintain their therapeutic characteristics without raising biosafety concerns following cryopreservation. Biobanking of hMSCs would be a crucial strategy to facilitate clinical applications in the future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Lembah Pantai, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Kar Wey
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Yong
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Lembah Pantai, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Jane Ru
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Lembah Pantai, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. wansafwani@um.edu.my.
authors.forename: Wan Kamarul Zaman
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Wan Safwani
mesh_terms: D018070:Biological Specimen Banks / Q000639:trends*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D064987:Cell- and Tissue-Based Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D015925:Cryopreservation / Q000379:methods*; D003451:Cryoprotective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D004121:Dimethyl Sulfoxide / Q000494:pharmacology; D005615:Freezing; D006801:Humans; D007155:Immunologic Factors / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000378:metabolism; D045164:Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D058989:Vitrification
chemical_list: D003451:Cryoprotective Agents; D007155:Immunologic Factors; D004121:Dimethyl Sulfoxide
keywords: Challenges; Clinical applications; Clinical trials; Cryopreservation; Human mesenchymal stem cells; Limitations; Slow freezing; Vitrification