In-vitro proliferation and enrichment of CD34+ autologous haematopoietic stem cells, obtained from patients with end-stage left ventricular failure

Abstract

With a rising global prevalence of end-stage heart failure and a limited availability of cardiac transplantation programmes or left ventricular assist devices in many parts of the world, there is a renewed interest in potential alternative treatment options. Along with other groups, we have previously demonstrated the beneficial effect of intracoronary autologous bone marrow derived peripheral haemopoietic stem cell transplantation, to improve myocardial contractility in end-stage heart failure. We now assess the ability of these cells to expand in numbers in-vitro, to achieve enrichment of stem cell counts, using standard cell culture methods and flow- cytometric analysis. We demonstrate that with in-vitro culturing (within 3 passages post-harvest), the CD34+ stem cell fraction increases in standard culture media, across multiple samples. However, optimal culture conditions to achieve near pure stem cell populations with rapid cell proliferation, still needs to be defined.