Low-shear, scalable microfluidic sorting of platelets and leukocytes for pooled platelet lysate

Extem向健康研究界提供研究级间充质干细胞(MSCs)，并希望通过提供专有的人类来源的生长介质来实现差异化。MSCs有许多对加拿大人未来健康非常重要的应用，例如：在组织工程和再生医学中的应用；在临床试验之前使用人体组织进行药物筛选；通过调节(增强或抑制)免疫系统来治疗疾病。MSCs通常在来自奶牛的胎牛血清(FBS)中培养。然而，为了避免异种并发症，干细胞行业正在远离来自非人类物种的产品。FBS的其他缺点包括：批次之间的可变性；意外的细胞生长特征；以及污染问题。一个更好的标准化的人类衍生解决方案将解决其中的许多问题。PPL已被确定为FBS的一种可行的替代品。PPL是通过全血的双重离心法(DC)产生的。然而，现有的生产PPL的方法缺乏严格的质量控制和标准化，而且无法激活细胞。例如，基于DC的PPL可导致高达50%的细胞活力损失，这是由于细胞在流体剪应力下的激活。埃特姆需要开发一种更经济的解决方案，将有益的质量控制和标准化程序结合在一起。Extem和西蒙弗雷泽大学(SFU)的微仪器专家Gray博士提出了一种低剪切、高吞吐量、可伸缩的微流控全血分选机，其目标是优化设计，以在给定的时间段(高通量)内产生尽可能多的存活血小板。单个芯片将单独进行优化，并用于阵列以提高吞吐量。芯片的设计将以最终大规模生产为目标，在设备设计的所有阶段都要考虑制造限制。这种技术的开发将使Extem和加拿大的卫生研究人员通过提供在成本效益高的人类衍生培养液中生长的MSCs，在干细胞的生产和应用方面保持领先地位。

Extem supplies research grade mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to the health research community and islooking to differentiate themselves by providing a proprietary human derived growth media. MSCs have manyapplications that are important to the future health of Canadians, such as: applications in tissue engineering andregenerative medicine; drug screening using human tissues prior to clinical trials; and treatment of disease bymodulating (enhancing or suppressing) the immune system. MSCs are typically grown in fetal bovine serum(FBS), derived from cows. However, in order to avoid xenotropic complications, the stem cell industry ismoving away from products that are derived from non-human species. Other disadvantages of FBS include:batch to batch variability; unexpected cell growth characteristics; and contamination issues. A betterstandardized human derived solution would solve many of these problems. Pooled Platelet Lysate (PPL) hasbeen identified as a viable alternative to FBS. PPL is produced by means of double centrifugation (DC) ofwhole blood. However, existing methods of producing PPL lack rigorous quality control, standardization, andcan activate cells. For example, DC-based PPL can result in an up to 50% loss in cell viability due to activationof cells under fluid shear stress. Extem needs to develop a more economical solution that integrates beneficialquality control and standardization procedures. Extem and microinstrumentation expert Dr. Gray at SimonFraser University (SFU) propose a low shear, high throughput scalable microfluidic whole blood sorter withthe goal of optimizing designs to result in as many viable platelets as possible over a given time period (highthroughput). Individual chips will be optimized both individually and for use in arrays to increase throughput.Chips will be designed with the goal of eventual mass production, with manufacturing constraints consideredin all phases of device design. The development of such a technology will allow Extem and Canadian healthresearchers to remain leaders in the production and application of stem cells by providing MSCs grown in acost-effective human-derived media.