Therapeutic Impact of Human Bone Marrow Stromal Cells Expanded by Animal Serum-Free Medium for Cerebral Infarct in Rats

BACKGROUND: The donor cell culture in animal serum-free medium is important for the clinical application of cell transplantation therapy. Recently, human-derived platelet lysate (PL) gained interest as a substitute for fetal calf serum (FCS), but there are no studies that evaluate the validity of human bone marrow stromal cells (hBMSCs) expanded with PL-containing medium for central nervous system disorders. OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that hBMSCs expanded with FCS-free, PL-containing medium can promote functional recovery after cerebral infarct. METHODS: hBMSCs were cultured in the FCS-or PL-containing medium. Cell-growth kinetics were analyzed. The vehicle or hBMSCs was stereotactically transplanted into the ipsilateral striatum of the rats subjected to permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion 7 days after the insult. Motor function was assessed for 8 weeks, and the fate of transplanted hBMSCs was examined using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in hBMSC expansion between the 2 groups. Transplantation of hBMSCs expanded with the FCS-or PL-containing medium equally promoted functional recovery compared with the vehicle group. Histological analysis revealed that there were no significant differences in their migration, survival, and neural differentiation in the infarct brain between the 2 groups. CONCLUSION: hBMSCs expanded with PL-containing medium retained their capacity of migration, survival, and differentiation and significantly promoted functional recovery when stereotactically transplanted into the infarct brain. The PL may be a clinically valuable and safe substitute for FCS in expanding hBMSCs to regenerate the infarct brain.