Optimizing growth media for in vitro expansion of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells

Human Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are widely used in skeletal tissue regeneration and have shown success in the clinical uses for various diseases. Besides the age-dependent decrease in proliferation potential as we reported in hMSCs, during the requisite two-dimensional monolayer expansion to achieve a clinically relevant number of cells, hMSCs exhibit profound degeneration in progenitor potency. To harness the robust therapeutic potential of hMSCs, a consistent and rapid expansion method is necessary. In this study, we investigated the effects of various growth media on the proliferation potential of hMSCs. Our data demonstrated that the investigated expansion media have significant different influences on the proliferation potential of hMSCs; comparing with regular used growth medium, MEM-plus FBS, the media of MEM-plus MSC-FBS, MEM-plus ESC-FBS, MEM- plus FBS and E8 supplement, MEM-plus FBS and STEMPRO hESC supplement, or Essential 8 plus FBS have better potentials for in vitro expansion of hMSCs. Our study may be useful to determine the optimization of in vitro expansion of hMSCs for skeletal tissue regeneration and their clinical uses.