Ex vivo expansion of human circulating myogenic progenitors on cluster-assembled nanostructured TiO2.

2010 Jul;31(20):5385-96
Ex vivo expansion of human circulating myogenic progenitors on cluster-assembled nanostructured TiO2.
Belicchi M, Erratico S, Razini P, Meregalli M, Cattaneo A, Jacchetti E, Farini A, Villa C, Bresolin N, Porretti L, Lenardi C, Milani P, Torrente Y
Abstract
Ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic stem cells has been explored in the fields of stem cell biology, gene therapy and clinical transplantation. Recently, we demonstrated the existence of a circulating myogenic progenitor expressing the CD133 antigen. The relative inability of circulating CD133+ stem cells to reproduce themselves ex vivo imposes substantial limitations on their use for clinical applications in muscular dystrophies. Here we report that the use of cluster-assembled nanostructured titanium dioxide (ns-TiO(2)) substrates, in combination with cytokine enriched medium, enables high-level expansion of circulating CD133+ stem cells in vitro. Furthermore, we demonstrate that expanded circulating CD133+ stem cells retain their in vitro capacity to differentiate into myogenic cells. The exploitation of cluster-assembled ns-TiO(2) substrates for the expansion of CD133+ stem cells in vitro could therefore make the clinical application of these stem cells for the treatment of muscle diseases practical.
PMID: 20398929 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]