Marianne Ellis, Fadi Issa and Jon Pleat
Department of Chemical Engineering and Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Bath, Bath, UK
Organ transplants require the recipient to take immunosuppressant drugs for their entire life to prevent rejection of the allogeneic tissues [1], which may cause side effects. Recently, work has been carried out to harness the inherent immune control mechanisms [2] and an alternative to immunosuppressant drugs is the administration of a large dose of natural regulatory T cells (Tregs) [2]. A therapeutic number of cells (suggested to be 30 x 106 cells/kg [3]) need to be made available at the right time. The current in vitro expansion process for Tregs is well established at bench scale using static multi-well plate culture; the cells are split after 4 days then every day, cultured in the presence of Life TechnologiesTM Dynabeads®. A robust and cost effective Treg expansion bioprocess would enable Treg therapy to replace immunosupressant drug therapy and so improve the post-transplant outcome for the patient’s quality if life, reduce or eliminate additional NHS care due to complications, and reduce the cost of transplantation. Here we present a semi-automated cost-effective process for Treg cell therapy manufacture, based around a fluidized bed bioreactor.
REFERENCES
[1] Gaumann, A. et al. Transpl. Int. 21.(2008).
[2] Issa, F. et al. Trends Immunol. 34.(2013).
[3] Brunstein, C.G. et al. Blood 117.(2011).