The base media formulation impacts the efficiency of ex-vivo erythropoiesis of primary human hematopoietic stem cells

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a disruption in the supply of the widely used erythroid differentiation media product, Iscove’s Modified Dulbecco’s Medium, manufactured by Biochrom AG. IMDM is a critical component of ex vivo erythropoiesis protocols used to generate genetically modified red blood cells for the study of malaria host factors. Therefore, we set out to identify the best alternative IMDM product for efficient erythroid differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells into enucleated red blood cells for use in our research. We tested other IMDM products, including I2911 (from Millipore Sigma), P04-20450 (from Pan Biotech) and EP-CM-L0216 (from ElabScience Technologies) which are all marketed specifically as replacements for the Biochrom AG product. We found that while FG0465, I2911, and P04-20450 were all sufficient for ex-vivo erythropoiesis, FG0465 IMDM was superior to other products tested in supporting maximal erythroid cell proliferation and enucleation.