Generation of a GMP-compliant MSC bank

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are cells with immunomodulatory capacities that are mainly located in the bone marrow and adipose tissue. Due to their characteristics they seem an exciting possibility to prevent or intervene with acute Graft-versus-Host disease, a common drawback of allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Currently, for cell-based therapeutics mainly donated MSCs of a specific third-party donor are used for transplantation. However, functionality of MSCs differs among donors, which might obscure outcome of clinical trials. Thus, it might be more reasonable to transplant several patients with expanded MSCs from the same donor. For this purpose, we are generating a GMP-compliant MSC bank that will allow clinical trials with standardized MSCs.