Human platelet lysate is an alternative to fetal bovine serum for large-scale expansion of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells

Human platelet lysate (HPL) was evaluated as an alternative to fetal bovine serum (FBS) in large-scale culturing of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (BM-MSCs) for therapeutic applications. Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium (DMEM)of low glucose (LG) and Knock Out (KO) were used with human platelet lysate (HPL) as LG-HPL and KO-HPL, and with FBS as LG-FBS and KO-FBS to culture the BM-MSCs. HPL at 10 % (v/v) supported BM-MSCs growth and subsequent isolation efficiency generated >90 × 10 ⁶ MSCs in LG-HPL. Population doublings (PDs) and population doubling times of LG-HPL and KO-HPL (PDT) were not significantly different but LG-HPL showed a significant clonogenic potential and HPL cultures had an average PDT of 36. 5 ± 6. 5 h and an average PDs of 5 ± 0. 7/passage. BM-MSCs cultured with LG-HPL had significantly higher immunosuppression compared to LG-FBS, but KO-HPL and KO-FBS-grown cultures were not significantly different. HPL is therefore alternative to FBS for large-scale production of BM-MSCs for therapeutic applications.