Increased production of megakaryocytes near purity from cord blood CD34+ cells using a short two-phase culture system

Expansion of hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) ex vivo remains an important focus in fundamental and clinical research. The aim of this study was to determine whether the implementation of such expansion phase in a two-phase culture strategy prior to the induction of megakaryocyte (Mk) differentiation would increase the yield of Mks produced in cultures. Toward this end, we first characterized the functional properties of five cytokine cocktails to be tested in the expansion phase on the growth and differentiation kinetics of CD34+-enriched cells, and on their capacity to expand clonogenic progenitors in cultures. Three of these cocktails were chosen based on their reported ability to induce HPC expansion ex vivo, while the other two represented new cytokine combinations. These analyses revealed that none of the cocktails tested could prevent the differentiation of CD34+ cells and the rapid expansion of lineage-positive cells. Hence, we sought to determine the optimum length of time for the expansion phase that would lead to the best final Mk yields. Despite greater expansion of CD34+ cells and overall cell growth with a longer expansion phase, the optimal length for the expansion phase that provided greater Mk yield at near maximal purity was found to be 5 days. Under such settings, two functionally divergent cocktails were found to significantly increase the final yield of Mks. Surprisingly, these cocktails were either deprived of thrombopoietin or of stem cell factor, two cytokines known to favor megakaryopoiesis and HPC expansion, respectively. Based on these results, a short resource-efficient two-phase culture protocol for the production of Mks near purity (> 95%) from human CD34+ CB cells has been established.