Name: Preparación del biorreactor de tanque agitado para la producción a gran escala de células madre mesenquimales humanas
Uploaded: 2023-07-07T14:30:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Preparation of the Stirred-Tank Bioreactor for Large-Scale Production of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells at JoVE.com

preparation of the stirred-tank bioreactor for large-scale production of human mesenchymal stem cells

Producción en sistema cerrado de células adherentes basadas en microportadores solubles

The CGT industry has witnessed an exponential expansion over the past two decades. The evolution of next-generation medicines is anticipated to treat and cure numerous refractory diseases1. Since the first Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a CGT product, Kymriah, in 2017, CGT-related research and development in the world has continued to grow at a fast rate, with the FDA seeing active investigational new drug applications for CGT increased to 500 in 20182. It had been predicted that the number of approvals of CGT products will likely be 54-74 in the United States by 20302.
While the rapid growth in CGT research and innovation is exciting, there is still a large technological gap between lab research and industrial-scale manufacturing that could deliver these promising medicines to reach as many patients as needed at affordable costs. The current processes adopted for these clinical trials were established in labs for small-scale experiments, and significant efforts are needed to improve and innovate on CGT manufacturing3. There are many types of CGT products, most of them based on live cells, which can be allogenic, autologous, engineered, or natural. These living drugs are much more complex than small molecular entities or biologics, hence making large-scale manufacturing a significant challenge4,5,6. In this work, we demonstrate a large-scale cell production protocol for three anchorage-dependent cells that are widely applied in CGTs. These include human mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (hMSCs), which have been used for cell-based therapy, and HEK293T cells and Vero cells, both of which are used to produce viruses for the genetic engineering of the final therapeutic cell product. Anchorage-dependent cells are commonly cultured on planar systems, which require manual processing. However, manual culture methods require a significant amount of labor and are prone to contamination, which can compromise the quality of the end product. Furthermore, there is no in-line process control, leading to substantial variability in quality between batches7. Taking stem cell therapy as an example, with a promising pipeline of over 200 stem-cell therapy candidates, it is estimated that 300 trillion hMSCs would be needed per year to meet the demands of clinical applications8. Hence, the large-scale manufacturing of therapeutic cells has become a prerequisite to perform these therapeutic interventions with such a high cell demand9.
To preclude the setbacks of planar systems, efforts have been made in developing large-scale manufacturing processes in stirred-tank bioreactors with conventional non-dissolvable microcarriers10,11,12,13, but these suffer from complicated preparation procedures and low cell-harvesting efficiency14. Recently, we have innovated a dissolvable microcarrier for stem cell expansion, aiming to circumvent the challenges of cell harvesting from conventional non-dissolvable commercial microcarriers15. This novel, commercially available GMP-grade 3D dissolvable porous microcarrier, 3D TableTrix, has shown great potential for large-scale cell production. Indeed, 3D culture based on these porous microcarriers could potentially recreate favorable biomimetic microenvironments to promote cell adhesion, proliferation, migration, and activation16. The porous structures and interconnected pore networks of microcarriers could create a larger cell adhesion area and promote the exchange of oxygen, nutrients, and metabolites, thus creating an optimal substrate for in vitro cell expansion17. The high porosity of these GMP-grade 3D dissolvable porous microcarriers enables large-scale expansion of hMSCs, and the ability for the cells to be fully dissolved allows for the efficient harvesting of these expanded cells18. It is also a GMP-grade product and has been registered as a pharmaceutical excipient with the Chinese Center for Drug Evaluation (filing numbers: F20210000003 and F20200000496)19 and the FDA of the United States (FDA, USA; Drug Master File number: 35481)20.
Here, we illustrate an automated closed industrial scale cell production (ACISCP) system18 using these dispersible and dissolvable porous microcarriers for hMSC, HEK293T cell, and Vero cell expansion. We achieved a successful two-tiered expansion of hMSCs (128 cumulative fold expansion in 9 days) from a 5 L bioreactor to a 15 L bioreactor and finally obtained up to 1.1 x 1010 hMSCs from a single batch of production. The cells were harvested by completely dissolving the microcarriers, concentrated, washed and formulated with a continuous flow centrifuge-based cell processing system, and then aliquoted with a cell filling system. Furthermore, we assessed the quality of hMSC products to confirm compliance. We also demonstrated the application of these dissolvable microcarriers for the scaled-up production of two other types of anchorage cells, HEK293T cells and Vero cells, that are extensively applied in the CGT industry. The peak cell density of HEK293T cells reached 1.68 x 107 cells/mL, whereas the peak density of Vero cells reached 1.08 x 107 cells/mL. The ACISCP system could be adapted to culture a variety of adherent cells, and it could potentially become a powerful platform contributing to expediting the industrialization of CGT.

Autor destacado: Avance en la fabricación de terapias celulares con microportadores solubles 

Producción celular a gran escala basada en microportadores porosos solubles de grado GMP

The cell and gene therapy industry has witnessed an exponential expansion over the past two decades. However, a large technological gap exists between lab research and industrial skill manufacturing. Compliant with regulatory policies, and to meet the green demands of the CGT industry, automated closed systems have been adopted to produce cell therapeutics.For adherent cells, cultivation using microcarriers in scalable stirred-tank bioreactors, is a promising method. Conventionally, commercialized microcarriers are non-desirable. Cell harvesting using trypsinization and the saving out microcarriers by size is not only inefficient and challenging, but also impacts cell quality and causes safety concerns.In this study, we have successfully achieved large-scale cell production based on GMP-grade 3D TableTrix dissolvable microcarriers in an automated and closed system. Over 11 billion human mesenchymal stem cells were yield in a two-stage expansion within nine days. We also demonstrated high density culture of HEK293T cells and Vero cells, in which both densities reached above 10 million cells per milliliter.This advanced biomanufacturing platform allows adherence cells to be effectively expanded and completely harvested in an automated and closed manner. Our protocol offers an opportunity to enhance production efficiency and refine quality control at industrial-scale manufacturing of CGT products.

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Preparation of the Stirred-Tank Bioreactor for Large-Scale Production of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells at JoVE.com

Preparación del biorreactor de tanque agitado para la producción a gran escala de células madre mesenquimales humanas

Para comenzar, realice una calibración de dos puntos en la sonda de pH con un controlador de biorreactor. Luego, para ensamblar un recipiente de biorreactor, instale piezas como tubos e impulsores de acero inoxidable en la placa principal de acuerdo con las instrucciones del fabricante. Coloque un kit de consumibles desechables de cultivo listo para usar en las piezas, tubos y puertos de acero inoxidable apropiados en la placa principal siguiendo las instrucciones del fabricante.Al ensamblar el recipiente, realice una verificación de hermeticidad del recipiente completamente ensamblado según lo especificado por las instrucciones del fabricante. Autoclave el recipiente con el kit de consumibles a 15 PSI y 121 grados Celsius durante 60 minutos. Después de enfriar el recipiente a temperatura ambiente, inserte la sonda de temperatura en el tubo del termopozo y conecte los cables para el monitor, la sonda de pH y la sonda de oxígeno disuelto del controlador a las partes respectivas del recipiente.Envuelva firmemente la alfombrilla térmica alrededor del recipiente. Inicie sesión en el sistema del controlador del biorreactor e ingrese los parámetros en el sistema de acuerdo con las instrucciones del fabricante. Suelde el tubo de salida del frasco mediano al tubo C-Flex de entrada del frasco que contiene 10 gramos de microportadores W01 preesterilizados para MSC.Bombee 500 mililitros de medio de cultivo de la bolsa de almacenamiento a la botella de microportadores W01.

Research

JoVE Journal

Bioengineering

Preparation of the Stirred-Tank Bioreactor for Large-Scale Production of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Large-Scale Cell Production Based on GMP-Grade Dissolvable Porous Microcarriers

Researchers in the cell and gene therapy (CGT) industry have long faced a formidable challenge in the efficient and large-scale expansion of cells. To ...

Investigación

Bioingeniería

Two-Tiered Expansion of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells from 5-Liter to 15-Liter Bioreactors and Automated Cell Formulation from a 15-Liter Bioreactor

Expansión de dos niveles de células madre mesenquimales humanas de biorreactores de 5 litros a 15 litros y formulación celular automatizada a partir de un biorreactor de 15 litros