Stirred Suspension Bioreactor Culture of Porcine Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are an attractive cell source for regenerative medicine and the development of therapies, as they can proliferate indefinitely under defined conditions and differentiate into any cell type in the body. Large scale expansion of cells is limited in adherent culture, making it difficult to obtain adequate cell numbers for research. It has been previously shown that stirred suspension bioreactors (SSBs) can be used to culture mouse and human stem cells. Pigs are important pre-clinical models for stem cell research. Therefore, this study investigated the use of SSBs as an alternative culture method for the expansion of iPSCs. Using an established porcine iPSC line as well as a new cell line derived and characterized in the current study, we report that porcine iPSCs (piPSCs) can grow in SSB while maintaining characteristics of pluripotency and karyotypic stability similar to cells grown in traditional two-dimensional static culture. This culture method provides a suitable platform for scale up of cell culture to provide adequate cell numbers for future research applications involving porcine induced pluripotent stem cells.