Expanding iPSCs for Clinical Applications

Expanding and maintaining the pluripotency of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) in large quantities for clinical research clinical application has remained a challenge. The surface area of cultureware is a limitation to how much iPSC can expand. To address this issue, suspension culture is a method that enables greater expansion of iPSC by allowing for three-dimensional growth as spheroids. However, one challenge that remains with this method is that the media used for maintaining pluripotency in a suspension culture includes various components, which can make it difficult to sustain due to cost of materials and reagents needed. The StemScale PSC Suspension medium prototype could therefore be a universal medium that allows different iPSC lines to expand and maintain pluripotency in a suspension culture while requiring less materials and reagents. Here we used the StemScale PSC Suspension medium prototype to successfully transition adherent feeder-free iPSC into spheroids. The data shows that the StemScale PSC Suspension medium is able to successfully expand the iPSC while maintaining the positive expression of pluripotency markers however, chromosomal aberrations were observed and, in a tri-lineage differentiation assay, the iPSC did not successfully differentiate into all three germ layers. Further modification to this medium will be needed to preserve the iPSC for other clinical research use.