Decellularized Wharton jelly matrix: a biomimetic scaffold for ex vivo hematopoietic stem cell culture

Hematopoietic stem progenitor cells (HSPCs) reside in the bone marrow (BM) hematopoietic "niche," a special 3-dimensional (3D) microenvironment that regulates HSPC self-renewal and multipotency. In this study, we evaluated a novel 3D in vitro culture system that uses components of the BM hematopoietic niche to expand umbilical cord blood (UCB) CD34⁺ cells. We developed this model using decellularized Wharton jelly matrix (DWJM) as an extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffold and human BM mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) as supporting niche cells. To assess the efficacy of this model in expanding CD34⁺ cells, we analyzed UCB CD34⁺ cells, following culture in DWJM, for proliferation, viability, self-renewal, multilineage differentiation, and transmigration capability. We found that DWJM significantly expanded UCB HSPC subset. It promoted UCB CD34⁺ cell quiescence, while maintaining their viability, differentiation potential with megakaryocytic differentiation bias, and clonogenic capacity. DWJM induced an increase in the frequency of c-kit⁺ cells, a population with enhanced self-renewal ability, and in CXCR4 expression in CD34⁺ cells, which enhanced their transmigration capability. The presence of BM MSCs in DWJM, however, impaired UCB CD34⁺ cell transmigration and suppressed CXCR4 expression. Transcriptome analysis indicated that DWJM upregulates a set of genes that are specifically involved in megakaryocytic differentiation, cell mobility, and BM homing. Collectively, our results indicate that the DWJM-based 3D culture system is a novel in vitro model that supports the proliferation of UCB CD34⁺ cells with enhanced transmigration potential, while maintaining their differentiation potential. Our findings shed light on the interplay between DWJM and BM MSCs in supporting the ex vivo culture of human UCB CD34⁺ cells for use in clinical transplantation.