Use of animal protein-free products for passaging adherent human adipose-derived stromal/stem cells

Adherent adipose-derived stromal/stem cells (ASC) have been used in pre-clinical regenerative medical studies applied to a broad range of tissues with an ultimate goal of translating these findings to clinical safety and efficacy testing; however, many protocols passage the cells using porcine-derived trypsin. We have compared porcine trypsin with animal protein-free products from recombinant bacteria (TrypLE Express; Invitrogene) and corn (TrypZean; Sigma) based on cell yield, viability and immunophenotype. ASC harvested with each trypsin product were comparable.