Research Highlights
Scalable Expansion of MSCs in 3D VitroGel® MSC Microcapsules for Biomanufacturing
VitroGel® MSC overcomes the limitations of 2D and microcarrier systems by delivering a reproducible, scalable, and functional workflow for MSC biomanufacturing, from expansion to genetic engineering.
Category:
MSC Scale-Up
Cell Types:
Human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs)
Hydrogel:
VitroGel® MSC (VHM03)
Institutions:
Rutgers University
Team:
Matthew Teryek, Pankaj Jadhav, Raphaela Bento, Biju Parekkadan
The production of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) at a clinical scale faces persistent challenges. Traditional 2D culture systems and microcarriers are limited by scalability, high costs, and difficulties in preserving cell quality attributes during expansion. To address this bottleneck, researchers turned to VitroGel® MSC, a xeno-free polysaccharide-based hydrogel, to encapsulate MSCs into uniform 3D microcapsules via electrospraying.
These VitroGel®-based microcapsules were expanded in a vertical-wheel bioreactor using a fed-batch process. By optimizing critical parameters such as seeding density, applied voltage, and hydrogel volume, the team achieved reproducible microcapsule fabrication and controlled expansion. The system supported robust MSC growth, with up to 7-fold expansion in just 6 days, while maintaining key quality attributes including immunophenotype, viability, and tri-lineage differentiation capacity. Importantly, the platform also enabled genetic modification of encapsulated MSCs via lentiviral transduction, highlighting its potential for engineered cell therapies.
This study demonstrates that VitroGel® MSC creates a reproducible, scalable, and xeno-free biomanufacturing workflow for MSC expansion and genetic engineering, laying the foundation for next-generation stem cell and gene therapy production.
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