The Impact of Varying Cooling and Thawing Rates on the Quality of Cryopreserved Human Peripheral Blood T Cells.

For the clinical delivery of immunotherapies it is anticipated that cells will be cryopreserved and shipped to the patient where they will be thawed and administered. An established view in cellular cryopreservation is that following freezing, cells must be warmed rapidly (≤5 minutes) in order to maintain high viability. In this study we examine the interaction between the rate of cooling and rate of warming on the viability, and function of T cells formulated in a conventional DMSO based cryoprotectant and processed in conventional cryovials. The data obtained show that provided the cooling rate is -1 °C min-1 or slower, there is effectively no impact of warming rate on viable cell number within the range of warming rates examined (1.6 °C min-1 to 113 °C min-1). It is only following a rapid rate of cooling (-10 °C min-1) that a reduction in viable cell number is observed following slow rates of warming (1.6 °C min-1 and 6.2 °C min-1), but not rapid rates of warming (113 °C min-1 and 45 °C min-1). Cryomicroscopy studies revealed that this loss of viability is correlated with changes in the ice crystal structure during warming. At high cooling rates (-10 °C min-1) the ice structure appeared highly amorphous, and when subsequently thawed at slow rates (6.2 °C min-1 and below) ice recrystallization was observed during thaw suggesting mechanical disruption of the frozen cells. This data provides a fascinating insight into the crystal structure dependent behaviour during phase change of frozen cell therapies and its effect on live cell suspensions. Furthermore, it provides an operating envelope for the cryopreservation of T cells as an emerging industry defines formulation volumes and cryocontainers for immunotherapy products.

An automated microscale platform for evaluation and optimization of oxidative bioconversion processes.

In this work an integrated robotic platform has been used for the development of a fully automated microscale process sequence comprising fermentation and bioconversion using E. coli TOP10 [pQR210] expressing cyclohexanone monooxygenase (CHMO). Ninety six-Deep Square Well (96-DSW) microtiter plates were used for microbial culture and enzyme-catalyzed conversion, where plate preparation, reagent addition, and sampling were all carried out without manual intervention. The adoption of automated robotic procedures has enabled the rapid collection of kinetic data for whole process optimization at the microscale. This high-throughput approach enabled a range of amino acid sources for media formulation and well fill volumes to be investigated highlighting when nutritional limitation and oxygen limitations took place. The automated process sequence has been applied to test six CHMO substrates including norcamphor and cycloheptanone all of which to the best of our knowledge have yet to be tested with E. coli TOP10 [pQR210]. Substrate specificity and product selectivity were effectively demonstrated and compared to both the natural substrate cyclohexanone and the model substrate bicyclo[3.2.0]hept-2-en-6-one used to demonstrate asymmetric synthesis. The results obtained using the developed process sequence could be reproduced at 75 L scale when a matched oxygen transfer coefficient k(L) a approach was used. The study demonstrates how automated microscale processing enables the rapid collection of kinetic quantitative data in a robust manner with clear implications for accelerating bioprocess development, optimization, and scale-up.

The full spectrum of physiological oxygen tensions and step-changes in oxygen tension affects the neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells.

The beneficial impact of lowering oxygen tension to physiological levels has been demonstrated in a number of stem cell differentiation protocols. The majority of these studies compare normal laboratory oxygen tension with one physiological condition (typically 2-5% O(2) ). In this article, we investigated whether the full spectrum of physiological oxygen tensions (0-20% O(2) ) and step-changes in oxygen tension could enhance the production of neural populations from of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). We used a model system for the conversion of mouse ESCs into cells expressing one neuroectoderm stem cell marker (nestin) and two neural markers (ßIII tubulin and microtubule-associated protein (MAP2)). 4-10% O(2) was associated with large increases in the total production of viable cells and the highest number of cells expressing Nestin, ßIII tubulin, and MAP2. However, 4-10% O(2) also caused a reduction in the percentage of cells expressing all three markers. Step changes in oxygen tension at the mid-point of the differentiation process affected the total production of viable cells and the percentage of cells expressing all three markers. We found that the initial oxygen tension and the magnitude of the step-change were critical variables. A step increase from 0 to 2% O(2) mid-way through the protocol resulted in the highest percentage of cells expressing ßIII tubulin (86.5%). In conclusion, we have demonstrated that the full spectrum of physiological oxygen tensions and step changes in oxygen tension represent a powerful tool for the optimisation of neural differentiation processes.