Ex Vivo Expansion of Umbilical Cord Blood Hematopoietic Stem Cells on Collagen- Fibronectin Coated Electrospun Nano Scaffold

Background and Objective: Umbilical Cord blood (UCB) hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation is a therapeutic approach for the treatment of malignant and non-malignant hematologic disorders due to ease of collection, lack of risk for donors and lower levels of infection. Moreover, it is considered a good alternative for bone marrow HSC transplantation. The main limitation of their use is insufficient amount of HSCs due to low volume of blood collected from umbilical cord. A possible solution to overcome this limitation may be the in vitro expansion of these cells on 3D nanofiber scaffolds, with the goal of natural niche’s topography and chemistry mimicking. Materials and Methods: In this study, MACS isolated CD133+ cells were confirmed via flow cytometry and then cultured in three conditions:  2-dimensional culture (2D), 3D PLLA scaffold and collagen-fibronectin coated PLLA scaffold. : Comparison between three aforementioned groups showed that collagen-fibronectin coated scaffold had the highest expansion level CD133+ cells, while also having the highest clonogenic capacity and biocompatibility. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the protein coating of 3D PLLA scaffold with collagen-fibronectin provides a suitable system for the expansion of cells with minimal differentiation in vitro.