Cryopreservation of Stem Cells in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Taherian, Mohammad Mahdi; Abdoos, Pourya; Taherian, Mohammad Hossein; Ghorbanian, Fatemeh; Saltanatpour, Zohreh; Alizadeh, Akram

doi:10.30491/jabr.2022.331200.1501

Cryopreservation of Stem Cells in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

Mohammad Mahdi Taherian ¹

Pourya Abdoos ¹

Mohammad Hossein Taherian ¹

Fatemeh Ghorbanian ¹

Zohreh Saltanatpour ²^{, 3}

Akram Alizadeh ⁴

¹ Student Research Committee, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran

² Pediatric Cell and Gene Therapy Research Center, Gene, Cell, & Tissue Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

³ Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center of Excellence, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

⁴ Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran

10.30491/jabr.2022.331200.1501

Abstract

Cryopreservation is a critical enabling technology in stem cell-based therapies, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine that provides stable and long-term storage of organelles, cells, tissues, or any other biological constructs. However, this technology faces challenges, including decreasing cell survival rates and using dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), a cytotoxic agent. Moreover, cryopreserving methods are time-consuming and expensive. Various cells and tissues, due to some reasons, such as different metabolic and functional characteristics, respond differentially to the cryopreservation protocols which cause diversities in viability after thawing. This review discusses methods currently used for optimized cryopreservation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), embryonic stem cells (ESCs), adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs), and their advantages and disadvantages. Also, here we discuss about changing the DMSO, freezing rate, pre-freeze storage, and storage temperature that can improve the cryopreservation outcomes. Further studies are still needed to find better cryopreservation methods for stem cells.

Keywords

Cryopreservation

Regenerative Medicine

Tissue Engineering

Stem Cells

Hematopoietic Stem Cells

Mesenchymal Stem Cells