Modulation of mesenchymal stem cell actin organization on conventional microcarriers for proliferation and differentiation in stirred bioreactors

Tissue engineering applications require an appropriate combination of a cell population, biochemical factors and scaffold materials. In this field, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) emerge as an attractive cell population, due to their ready availability and their potential to be differentiated into various mesodermal cell types. Commercially available microcarriers have been recently recognized as an efficient tool for the propagation of such cells compared to traditional monolayer culture, enabling efficient scale-up and serving as a cell delivery system. The organization of actin as well as the induction of its effectors was previously shown to affect dramatically both proliferation and differentiation of MSCs in monolayer culture. To achieve mass scale production of differentiated cells derived from MSCs in scalable stirred bioreactors, this work aims at rationally screening microcarriers based on the characterization of actin organization. First, among the various supports tested, gelatin-based microcarriers were found to be most suitable for MSC expansion, due to their best-adapted actin organization compared to monolayer cultures. Secondly, the proper actin organization on Cultispher-S was closely linked to its ability to bind serum adhesion molecules enabling Rho GTPase activation. Finally, by modulating actin behaviour, it was feasible to efficiently guide MSC differentiation on microcarriers. Taken together, these results show that controlling actin behaviour is a good strategy toward mass scale sequential expansion followed by differentiation of MSCs in a microcarrier based bioreactor. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.