Tauroursodeoxycholic acid improves viability of artificial RBCs

Tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) is known to prevent apoptosis through the Bax pathway and to promote neovascularization by enhancing the mobilization of stem cells, their differentiation. This study was performed to investigate the effect of TUDCA on erythropoiesis in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Since erythropoiesis of CD34+ HSCs is divided into four phases, the total cell number, viable cell number, cell viability, cell morphology, and expressed erythroid markers in each phase were examined. The number of viable control cells and their viability did not differ from those of the TUDCA-treated cells in phase I and II. However, TUDCA increased cell viability compared to the control in phases III and IV. Cell distribution differed that the immature erythroid cell number was higher for the TUDCA-treated cells than for the control cells until phase III, but all developed into RBCs in the last. The final RBC number and viability was significantly higher in TUDCA-treated cells compared to the control cells. Taken together, we suggest that TUDCA addition to cell cultures for artificial RBC production could be used as a new protocol for improving the viability of RBCs.