Understanding the impact of bioactive coating materials for human mesenchymal stem cells and implications for manufacturing

Abstract: Bioactive materials interact with cells and modulate their characteristics which enables the generation of cell-based products with desired specifications. However, their evaluation and impact are often overlooked when establishing a cell therapy manufacturing process. In this study, we investigated the role of different surfaces for tissue culture including, untreated polystyrene surface, uncoated Cyclic Olefin Polymer (COP) and COP coated with collagen and recombinant fibronectin. It was observed that hMSCs expanded on COP-coated plates with different bioactive materials resulted in improved cell growth kinetics compared to traditional polystyrene plates and uncoated COP non-coated plates. The doubling time obtained was 2.78 and 3.02 days for hMSC seeded in COP plates coated with collagen type I and recombinant fibronectin respectively, and 4.64 days for cells plated in standard polystyrene treated plates. Metabolite analysis reinforced the findings of the growth kinetic studies, specifically that cells cultured on COP plates coated with collagen I and fibronectin exhibited improved growth as evidenced by a higher lactate production rate (9.38x105 and 9.67x105 pmol.cell-1.day-1, respectively) compared to cells from the polystyrene group (5.86x105 pmol.cell-1.day-1). This study demonstrated that COP is an effective alternative to polystyrene-treated plates when coated with bioactive materials such as collagen and fibronectin, however COP-treated plates in isolation was found not to be sufficient to support cell growth. These findings demonstrate the key role biomaterials play in the cell manufacturing process and the importance of optimising this selection.