While playing an integral role in biotechnology and medicine, cryopreservation (CP) is often viewed as a “simple tool” and is overlooked as a critical and evolving component of cell and tissue bioprocessing. Despite this, cryopreservation serves as an enabling technology in numerous areas including the latest cell therapies. For example, over one third of the cells used in clinical trials are cryopreserved using the traditional methods, which in many cases yield suboptimal outcomes. Further, researchers still rely on the assessment of cell survival immediately post-thaw (within a few hours), and fail to account for the impact of cryopreservation-induced delayed-onset cell death (CIDOCD) which continues to impact survival from hours to days post-thaw.
Tag: <span>cell viability</span>
The success of tissue-engineered cartilage constructs (TECCs) as treatment options for healing cartilage defects can only be achieved if suitable preservation methods are found that can maintain their viability and function. Simply lowering the temperature of cells and tissues to below their freezing point invariably destroys them due to ice crystals that form in the water-laden cells and tissues. In addition, high salt concentrations that result from removal of water due to ice formation create a toxic imbalance. If the formation of ice crystals can be minimized while still halting metabolic activity of cells at low temperatures, then the viability and functionality of the preserved tissue may be maintained…
We have designed a novel autologous vaccine by combining two vaccine strategies that have each been previously tested in separate non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) clinical trials: 1) a GM-CSF gene transduced tumor cell vaccine; and 2) a TGFβ2 antisense gene transduced cell vaccine. Each has demonstrated similar beneficial effects without any evidence of significant toxicity in advanced cancer patients…
With the advent of whole cell-based therapeutics has come a growing standardized quality control and quality assurance of the processes employed for developing and manufacturing cellular materials, similar to the controls over traditional drugs and biologicals. Cellular therapeutics present unique process and quality control challenges due to the innate complexities of living cells, making it important to use whole cell assays to provide detailed pictures of the status and consistency of cell preparations that will be used to treat patients. This article illustrates how a cellular assay from Guava Technologies addresses these issues…