Ex vivo expansion of human mesenchymal stem cells on microcarriers

Due to the very low titers of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) in their niches, namely the bone marrow, an effective approach to isolate and expand those cells ex vivo is required to meet the needs of the increasing MSC clinical applications (e.g., therapy-resistant severe acute graft-versus-host disease). Herein we describe a microcarrier-based stirred culture system protocol for the efficient ex vivo expansion of human bone marrow-derived MSC. This protocol is potentially adaptable to different culture conditions, namely focusing the use of serum-free medium formulations, other sources of MSC, or different types of microcarriers.