Cultivation of hierarchical 3D scaffolds inside a perfusion bioreactor: scaffold design and finite-element analysis of fluid flow

The use of porous 3D scaffolds for the repair of bone nonunion and osteoporotic bone is currently an area of great interest. Using a combination of thermally-induced phase separation (TIPS) and 3D-plotting (3DP), we have generated hierarchical 3DP/TIPS scaffolds made of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and nanohydroxyapatite (nHA). A full factorial design of experiments was conducted, in which the PLGA and nHA compositions were varied between 6‒12% w/v and 10‒40% w/w, respectively, totaling 16 scaffold formulations with an overall porosity ranging between 87%‒93%. These formulations included an optimal scaffold design identified in our previous study. The internal structures of the scaffolds were examined using scanning electron microscopy and microcomputed tomography. Our optimal scaffold was seeded with MC3T3-E1 murine preosteoblastic cells and subjected to cell culture inside a tissue culture dish and a perfusion bioreactor. The results were compared to those of a commercial CellCeram™ scaffold with a composition of 40% β-tricalcium phosphate and 60% hydroxyapatite (β-TCP/HA). Media flow within the macrochannels of 3DP/TIPS scaffolds was modeled in COMSOL software in order to fine tune the wall shear stress. CyQUANT DNA assay was performed to assess cell proliferation. The normalized number of cells for the optimal scaffold was more than twofold that of CellCeram™ scaffold after two weeks of culture inside the bioreactor. Despite the substantial variability in the results, the observed improvement in cell proliferation upon culture inside the perfusion bioreactor (vs. static culture) demonstrated the role of macrochannels in making the 3DP/TIPS scaffolds a promising candidate for scaffold-based tissue engineering.

Abstract P469: Scale-up And Characterization Of Therapeutic Mesenchymal Stromal Cell-derived Extracellular Vesicles

Introduction: Early studies have shown therapeutic benefits of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) in cardioprotection due to their angiogenic, proliferative, anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory properties, which are now attributed to secreted factors such as extracellular vesicles (EVs). While MSC-EVs have shown promise in small animals for cardiovascular therapies, large animal studies are required to evaluate the therapeutic benefit of MSC-EVs for clinical translation. One of the biggest challenges for large animal studies is the need to generate clinically-relevant quality and quantity of EVs without batch-to-batch variations that could compromise efficacy. This study aims to explore three different cell culture methods (traditionally-used tissue culture plates (TCP), 3-D printed bioscaffolds in a perfusion system (P), and microcarriers in dynamic spinner flask conditions (M)) to scale-up the production of MSC-EVs across four different biological donors and rigorously investigate EV yield, size, shape, and content. Methods: MSCs were isolated from the iliac crest of four different Yucatan minipigs using heparinized syringes, and cells were expanded to passage four, at which point they were seeded onto the respective cell culture methods. EVs were collected from conditioned medium (CM) via differential ultracentrifugation. EV size, distribution, yield, and protein concentration were studied using Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) and microBCA assays. Results: Both perfusion bioreactor and spinner flask systems enabled sustained maintenance of large numbers of cells. Across biological donors and fabrication methods, modes remained within 50-150 nm and were not statistically different. Microcarrier-based spinner flasks and perfusion bioreactor set-ups both improved EV yield, up to 6 times in efficiency. Ongoing research focuses on examining differences in EV content across biological donors using RNA-sequencing and proteomics.