Enhancement of Cellular Adhesion and Proliferation in Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells by the Direct Addition of Recombinant Collagen I Peptide to the Culture Medium

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have considerable potential for a wide range of clinical applications and regenerative medicine and cell therapy. As a consequence, there is considerable interest in developing robust culture methods for producing large number of MSCs for use in repair of injured tissues or treatment of diseases. In general, tissue culture plates or flasks that have been precoated with substrates derived from animal tissues are used in the production of MSCs. However, these substrates can potentially cause serious problems due to contamination of the MSCs with animal-derived components. In this study, we evaluated the use of a type I collagen-based recombinant peptide (RCP) for MSC culture in an attempt to avoid the problems associated with animal cell-derived substances. This RCP is xeno free, has an increased RGD (Arg–Gly–Asp) sequence, and has high molecular weight uniformity. The effect of RCP on promotion of cellular adhesion and proliferation of MSCs was investigated in cultures in which RCP was included in the culture medium. The effects of RCP on promotion of cellular adhesion and proliferation of MSCs were investigated by comparing cultures in which the additive was present in the culture medium and those where the culture plates were coated with RCP. In addition, changes in gene expression profiles during cell culture were monitored by real time-polymerase chain reaction. Our analyses showed that RCP enhanced cellular adhesion and proliferation in cultures in which the additive was included in the culture medium. Our findings indicate that adding RCP to the culture medium could save time and cost in MSC culture. Our gene expression analysis indicated that RCP enhanced expression of genes encoding proteins associated with the extracellular matrix and cell adhesion.