Abstract

 Background and Objectives

 Umbilical cord blood is a promising alternative source of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Although the use of UCB for transplantation has plentiful advantages in comparison with other cell sources, the low number of HSPCs led to cell delayed recovery. Therefore, ex vivo expansion of HSPC before transfusion could induce faster cell recovery.

 Materials and Methods

 CD34 positive cells were positively enriched using MidiMACS system and cultured on aminated PS nanofibers, aligned PCLs, and random PCLs. Cell expansion and quantification of cell apoptosis were carried out in expanded cell populations in different conditions by the flowcytometric method.

 Results

 This study indicated significantly increased expansion of CD34⁺ cells and declined apopotosis in PS-cultured cells compared to the same cells on 2-D control culture system (p< 0.05). There were no significantly differences in expansion of CD34⁺ cells on aligned and random PCL scaffolds than conventional system.

 Conclusions

 This study demonstrated that aminated PS nanofibers has positive effects on the expansion of CD34⁺ cells compared to 2D culture system by increasing cell expansion and cell apopotosis inhibition. However, aligned and random PCL nanofibers did not show supportive effects on cell proliferation.