ABSTRACT
Stirred culture offers a number of advantages over static systems as it maintains a stable, homogeneous culture environment and is easy to scale-up. This paper focused on the development and application of stirred tank bioreactor to culture hematopoietic cells. Preliminary study of stirred culture of hematopoietic cells was carried out in cord blood mononuclear cells culture in spinner flask. The results showed that the amplification rates of total cell, CFU-GM and BFU-E, with the exception of CFU-Mk, were greater in spinner flask than T-flask. The number of total cells increased 20 fold after 14 days incubation in spinner flask. The amplification rates of CFU-GM, CFU-Mk and BFU-E reached maximum at 10th day, 10th day and 7th day respectively, and the maximal amplification rates were 9.2-fold, 5.5-fold and 2.4-fold respectively, whereas the rate of CD34+ cells in spinner flask was (6.7 +/- 4.0)-fold at day 10. These results indicated that the stirred culture system is better than the static culture systems for hematopoietic cell proliferation. The biocompatibility of cord blood MNC to different types of materials used in bioreactors was also tested. The results showed that glass, stainless steel 316L and polytetraflouroethylene (PTFE) supported the growth of hematopoietic cells well. A higher cell density was reached in stirred bioreactors with controlled pH and DO than static culture. These findings suggested that the controlled large-scale culture could be used to overcome the clinical shortage of hematopoietic cells.