Porous poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) microsphere as cell culture substrate and cell transplantation vehicle for adipose tissue engineering

Tissue engineering often requires ex vivo cell expansion to obtain a large number of transplantable cells. However, the trypsinization process used to harvest ex vivo expanded cells for transplantation interrupts interactions between cultured cells and their extracellular matrices, facilitating apoptosis and consequently limiting the therapeutic efficacy of the transplanted cells. In the present study, open macroporous poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres were used as a cell culture substrate to expand human adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) ex vivo and as a cell transplantation vehicle for adipose tissue engineering, thus avoiding the trypsinization necessary for transplantation of ex vivo expanded cells. Human ASCs cultured on macroporous PLGA microspheres in stirred suspension bioreactors expanded 3.8-fold over 7 days and differentiated into an adipogenic lineage. The apoptotic activity of ASCs cultured on microspheres was significantly lower than that of trypsinized ASCs. ASCs cultured on microspheres survived much better than trypsinized ASCs upon transplantation. The implantation of ASCs cultured on microspheres resulted in much more extensive adipose tissue formation than the implantation of ASCs cultured on plates, trypsinized, and subsequently mixed with microspheres. Ex vivo cell expansion and transplantation using this system would improve the therapeutic efficacy of cells over the current methods used for tissue engineering.