Understanding the impact of bioactive coating materials for human mesenchymal stromal cells and implications for manufacturing.

Bioactive materials interact with cells and modulate their characteristics which enable the generation of cell-based products with desired specifications. However, their evaluation and impact are often overlooked when establishing a cell therapy manufacturing process. In this study, we investigated the role of different surfaces for tissue culture including, untreated polystyrene surface, uncoated Cyclic Olefin Polymer (COP) and COP coated with collagen and recombinant fibronectin. It was observed that human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) expanded on COP-coated plates with different bioactive materials resulted in improved cell growth kinetics compared to traditional polystyrene plates and non-coated COP plates. The doubling time obtained was 2.78 and 3.02 days for hMSC seeded in COP plates coated with collagen type I and recombinant fibronectin respectively, and 4.64 days for cells plated in standard polystyrene treated plates. Metabolite analysis reinforced the findings of the growth kinetic studies, specifically that cells cultured on COP plates coated with collagen I and fibronectin exhibited improved growth as evidenced by a higher lactate production rate (9.38 × 10 and 9.67 × 10 pmol/cell/day, respectively) compared to cells from the polystyrene group (5.86 × 10 pmol/cell/day). This study demonstrated that COP is an effective alternative to polystyrene-treated plates when coated with bioactive materials such as collagen and fibronectin, however COP-treated plates without additional coatings were found not to be sufficient to support cell growth. These findings demonstrate the key role biomaterials play in the cell manufacturing process and the importance of optimising this selection.