Expansion of umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells on biocompatible nanofiber scaffold as co-culture with bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells

Introduction: Hematopoetic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is one of the treatment approaches for malignant and non-malignant hematologic diseases. The most important disadvantage of UCB in HSCT is low number of cells that can be collected. So, different systems for ex vivo expansion of HSCs were designed to overcome this limitation. The goal of this study was to examine different conditions of ex vivo expansion of HSCs. Materials and Methods: In this study, HSCs were cultured in four conditions: 1- In two-dimensional culture (2D), 2- Co-culture with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in 2-D (2D-Co), 3- In three-dimensional culture (constructed with poly eter sulfon nanofibers) (3D), and 4- Co - culture with MSCs in 3-D (3D-Co). Results: The comparison of these groups showed that 3D-Co group had more expansion levels and expression of CD34 marker than other groups. Moreover, the clonogenic capacity in this group was increased in comparison to other groups. Conclusion: The results of our study showed that the possibility usage of this system for expansion with lowest levels of differentiation in CD34+ HSCs. Further studies are needed to evaluate expanded cells with this system to use in clinical practic