Stem cell culture conditions and stability: a joint workshop of the PluriMes Consortium and Pluripotent Stem Cell Platform.

Human stem cells have the potential to transform medicine. However, hurdles remain to ensure that manufacturing processes produce safe and effective products. A thorough understanding of the biological processes occurring during manufacture is fundamental to assuring these qualities and thus, their acceptability to regulators and clinicians.

CD44 expression in endothelial colony-forming cells regulates neurovascular trophic effect.

Vascular abnormalities are a common component of eye diseases that often lead to vision loss. Vaso-obliteration is associated with inherited retinal degenerations, since photoreceptor atrophy lowers local metabolic demands and vascular support to those regions is no longer required. Given the degree of neurovascular crosstalk in the retina, it may be possible to use one cell type to rescue another cell type in the face of severe stress, such as hypoxia or genetically encoded cell-specific degenerations.

Concise review: guidance in developing commercializable autologous/patient-specific cell therapy manufacturing.

Cell therapy is poised to play an enormous role in regenerative medicine. However, little guidance is being made available to academic and industrial entities in the start-up phase. In this technical review, members of the International Society for Cell Therapy provide guidance in developing commercializable autologous and patient-specific manufacturing strategies from the perspective of process development.

Isolation and culture of mesenchymal stem cells from mouse compact bone.

The bone marrow (BM) of numerous species, including rodents and man, contains a rare population of cells termed marrow stromal cells or mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). Given the ability of these cells to differentiate into cells of the osteogenic, chondrogenic and adipogenic lineages, there is considerable interest in utilizing MSCs in a broad repertoire of cell-based therapies for the treatment of human disease. Before such potential therapies can be realized, a preclinical animal model in which to test and refine strategies utilizing MSC is required.

Isolation, enumeration, and expansion of human mesenchymal stem cells in culture.

Human bone marrow (BM) contains a population of non-hematopoietic stem cells also termed stromal cells, mesenchymal cells or multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). These cells have unique stem cell-like properties including their ability to self-renew, differentiate into multiple tissue types, and modulate immune cell responses through paracrine effects. These properties have positioned mesenchymal cells as biological agents in clinical trials for various diseases since the 1990s.