These paramagnetic immunobeads rapidly isolate high quantities of adipose-derived stem cells while preserving the biological characteristics of the cells that are important for research and clinical use. Stem cells have the unique potential to differentiate along multiple lineages and form various tissue types. Thus, these cells can be utilized for cell-based therapies and tissue regeneration purposes. Diseases ranging from neurodegeneration to heart disease, wound healing to blindness, and many others might one day benefit from stem cell-based therapies. The global market for stem cells was estimated at $9.6 billion in 2019, with an expected compound annual growth rate of 8.2% through 2027.
Typically, stem cells are collected from either bone marrow or adipose tissue. Adipose-derived stem cells offer distinct advantages over their bone marrow-derived counterparts, in that their collection is safer for the patient and less technically challenging. In addition, adipose-derived stem cells contain higher quantities of mesenchymal stem cells to isolate. Mesenchymal stem cells can be differentiated to produce fat, bone, muscle, cartilage, and nerve tissues. However, isolation of stem cells is dependent upon (1) instrumentation that requires electricity and (2) enzymatic solutions. Thus, it is nearly impossible to deliver stem cell-based therapies to the more than 1 billion people worldwide who do not have access to electricity. It is also difficult to obtain FDA approval for stem cell-based therapies that employ enzymatic dissociation, as this process may alter the biological characteristics of the stem cells and impact upon safety and efficacy.
Researchers at the University of Florida have isolated adipose-derived stem cells using paramagnetic immunobeads rather than electricity or enzymatic solutions in a way that preserves full biological characteristics of the cells. Paramagnetic immunobeads, conjugated to selectively bind markers of adipose-derived stem cells, are incubated with lipoaspirate, or fat surgically removed from a patient through common liposuction. By this simple magnetic force, high quantities of these cells can be isolated rapidly. These cells maintain full biological characteristics and are available for research and clinical purposes.
Kit and method for the isolation of adipose-derived stem cells
Immunobeads are conjugated to a panel of antibodies that recognize cell surface markers of adipose-derived stem cells. Incubation of these paramagnetic immunobeads in lipoaspirate allows the beads to bind the cells of interest. Then, a magnetic force pulls the beads and bound cells to the bottom of the incubator, allowing for removal of remaining aspirate and subsequent isolation of these adipose-derived stem cells. In culture, these cells exhibit normal morphology, multipotency, and sphere-forming potential. Stem cells isolated via this technique can be applied as fresh, primary therapeutics, or in autologous assays of toxicology, pharmacology, and disease modeling.
