CMaT Researchers Evaluate Tissue-Chip MSC Potency Assay
Researchers with the National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT) Engineering Research Center (ERC), based at Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia, have completed a comparison of secretion outcomes for on-chip and 2D to donor characteristics. The on-chip tissue platform had overall improved prediction of donor age and higher discrimination across donor disease score groups.
The CMaT team envisions a potent, tissue-mimetic in vitro platform for evaluating the potency of Mesenchymal Stromal Cell (MSC) preparations. MSCs can be used to repair, regenerate, and restore diseased tissues and organs. When used for biomarker (metabolites) profiling, the Tissue Chip platform could yield inline early prediction of biomarker profiles.
CMaT’s goal is to engineer a perfusable microfluidic chip system with a defined synthetic hydrogel seeded with MSC for inflammatory biomarker profiling in response to inflammatory stimuli. Researchers Andres Garcia, Wilbur Lam, and Luke Mortensen previously showed improved immunomodulatory prediction and in vivo recapitulation with on-chip secretion outcomes compared to 2D.
The more recent work tested n=34 BMAC clinical products (MILES Clinical Trial, NCT-03818737). Secretion outcomes were normalized to a 2D control group. ICAM-1 showed the best linear correlation and highest R2 value. The on-chip platform had many more analytes with significant linear correlation. The team will focus on correlation to patient-matched clinical outcomes in future work.
