Large-scale production of human mesenchymal stem cells for clinical applications

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) have many potential applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Currently, hMSCs are generated through conventional static adherent cultures in the presence of fetal bovine serum (FBS) for clinical applications (e.g., multiple sclerosis). However, these methods are not appropriate to meet the expected future demand for quality-assured hMSCs for human therapeutic use. Hence, it is imperative to develop an effective hMSC production system, which should be controllable, reproducible, and scalable. To this end, efforts have been made by several international research groups to develop (i) alternative media either by replacing FBS with human-sourced supplements (such as human serum or platelet lysate) or by identifying defined serum-free formulations consisting of key growth/attachment factors, and (ii) controlled bioreactor protocols. In this regard, we review here current hMSC production technologies and future perspectives toward efficient methods for the generation of clinically relevant numbers of hMSC therapeutics.