The Upscale Manufacture of Chondrocytes for Allogeneic Cartilage Therapies

Abstract

Allogeneic chondrocyte therapies need to be developed to allow more individuals to be treated with a cell therapy for cartilage repair and to reduce the burden and cost of the current two-stage autologous procedures. Upscale manufacture of chondrocytes using a bioreactor could help provide an off-the-shelf allogeneic chondrocyte therapy with many doses being produced in a single manufacturing run. In this study, we assess a good manufacturing practice-compliant hollow-fiber bioreactor (Quantum ® ) for adult chondrocyte manufacture. Chondrocytes were isolated from knee arthroplasty-derived cartilage ( n = 5) and expanded in media supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) or 5% human platelet lysate (hPL) on tissue culture plastic (TCP) for a single passage. hPL-supplemented cultures were then expanded in the Quantum bioreactor for a further passage. Matched, parallel cultures in hPL or FBS were maintained on TCP. Chondrocytes from all culture conditions were characterized in terms of growth kinetics, morphology, immunoprofile, chondrogenic potential (chondrocyte pellet assays), and single telomere length analysis. Quantum expansion of chondrocytes resulted in 86.4 ± 38.5 × 10 6 cells in 8.4 ± 1.5 days, following seeding of 10.2 ± 3.6 × 10 6 cells. This related to 3.0 ± 1.0 population doublings in the Quantum bioreactor, compared with 2.1 ± 0.6 and 1.3 ± 1.0 on TCP in hPL- and FBS-supplemented media, respectively. Quantum- and TCP-expanded cultures retained equivalent chondropotency and mesenchymal stromal cell marker immunoprofiles, with only the integrin marker, CD49a, decreasing following Quantum expansion. Quantum-expanded chondrocytes demonstrated equivalent chondrogenic potential (as assessed by ability to form and maintain chondrogenic pellets) with matched hPL TCP populations. hPL manufacture, however, led to reduced chondrogenic potential and increased cell surface positivity of integrins CD49b, CD49c, and CD51/61 compared with FBS cultures. Quantum expansion of chondrocytes did not result in shortened 17p telomere length when compared with matched TCP cultures. This study demonstrates that large numbers of adult chondrocytes can be manufactured in the Quantum hollow-fiber bioreactor. This rapid, upscale expansion does not alter chondrocyte phenotype when compared with matched TCP expansion. Therefore, the Quantum provides an attractive method of manufacturing chondrocytes for clinical use. Media supplementation with hPL for chondrocyte expansion may, however, be unfavorable in terms of retaining chondrogenic capacity. Impact statement This is the first study, to our knowledge, to manufacture adult chondrocytes in a good manufacturing practice-compliant hollow-fiber bioreactor (Quantum ® ). We provide evidence that chondrocytes can be manufactured using this methodology while retaining comparable properties to chondrocytes expanded in matched tissue cul...

Autologous and Allogeneic Cytotherapies for Large Knee (Osteo)Chondral Defects: Manufacturing Process Benchmarking and Parallel Functional Qualification

“…Cartilage-oriented regenerative strategies are currently far from being fully satisfactory, and the search for effective disease-modifying interventions is ongoing [ 69 , 70 , 71 ]. In order to meet increasing clinical needs, important translational efforts are being allocated toward the optimization of existing ACI protocols or the creation of novel approaches [ 11 , 12 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 ]. Several generations of ACI have been clinically investigated and shown to yield positive impacts for treated patients [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ].…”

“…Specifically, several studies have shown the functional equivalence of FBS and HPL for the in vitro manufacturing of chondrogenic cells [ 66 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 ]. Furthermore, the upscaling of cell manufacturing for ACI has technically excluded the use of AHS as a culture supplement due to limited available quantities [ 72 , 74 ]. Therefore, specific concerns have been voiced over the impact of HPL supplementation on the in vitro chondrogenic potential of the cellular active substance; however, the available reports are not all congruent, and the overall impact on the therapeutic efficacy of the intervention remains unknown [ 74 ].…”

“…Furthermore, the upscaling of cell manufacturing for ACI has technically excluded the use of AHS as a culture supplement due to limited available quantities [ 72 , 74 ]. Therefore, specific concerns have been voiced over the impact of HPL supplementation on the in vitro chondrogenic potential of the cellular active substance; however, the available reports are not all congruent, and the overall impact on the therapeutic efficacy of the intervention remains unknown [ 74 ]. Overall, while several new cell proliferation medium supplements are available and conform to the modern standards of animal material-free workflows, FBS remains the gold standard due to its proven manufacturing and clinical track record [ 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 ].…”

“…[69][70][71]. In order to meet increasing clinical needs, important translational efforts are being allocated toward the optimization of existing ACI protocols or the creation of novel approaches [11,12,[72][73][74][75][76]. Several generations of ACI have been clinically investigated and shown to yield positive impacts for treated patients [1][2][3][11][12][13][14][15].…”

Treatment of knee cartilage lesions in 2024: From hyaluronic acid to regenerative medicine

“…A similar one‐stage ACI is when one isolates chondrocytes including their pericellular matrix, the so‐called chondrons and mixes them with allogeneic MSCs as in the IMPACT study [ 30 ]. Another way to avoid two‐stage procedures for chondrocyte implantation is to use allogeneic chondrocyte therapies [ 49 ]. It is possible to obtain viable chondrocytes from cartilage harvested from cadaveric donors to obtain similar cell numbers and viability compared to cells of living donors [ 79 ].…”