We are working with mesenchymal stem cells and need to measure their ability to suppress T-cell proliferation. We were outsourcing this, but would like to bring it in-house. Any advice? Is it better to keep outsourcing?

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Options for Identification and Characterization of Pluripotent Stem Cells

Answered by:

Dr Uma Lakshmipathy

Company: Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.

Job Title: Principal Scientist

Answer

A simple in vitro protocol such as the Mixed Lymphocyte Reaction assay can be used to measure immunosuppression of MSC and AdSCs. An example protocol can be found in this publication: Kruisbeek et al., (2004) Proliferative Assays for T Cell Function. Current Protocols in Immunology 3.12.1-3.12.20. http://www.currentprotocols.com/WileyCDA/CPUnit/refId-im0312.html

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Without giving away too much detail, we are working with cardiomyocytes and are looking for a more efficient way to isolate on a larger scale. Currently we prep the tissue sample, plate cells and grown them in selection media. Bound cells are then transferred into culture media and expanded. The trouble is that this can be a very time consuming part of the process and we have had some challenges in consistency. Is there a process, kit, product, that you could recommend to improve our process, particularly time-investment when increasing scale?

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