Managing of a stem cell biorepository

Background: Today stem cells are acquiring a great deal of attentions as they promise, and rightly so, to be new vehicles for gene therapy. It is then important to optimize culturing conditions, cryostorage and monitoring systems to be applied to the newly derived as well as existing cell lines to obtain reproducible results. The generation of a neural stem cell bank at BioRep represent a fundamental source of highly controlled biomaterial that fulfil the most stringent standards. Methods: neural stem cells are assessed for bacterial, fungal and mycoplasma contamination-free cultures; an additional screen for viral contamination is performed by a certified lab. Cells are then cryopreserved and banked in vapor nitrogen tank connected to an alarm Central Monitoring System. Cells are also assessed for their pluripotency status and differentiation capabilities as well as chromosomal stability and viability after cryopreservation. Results: the use of standard operating procedures (SOP) for each step of the production processes guarantees the generation of cell with reproducible characteristics. Using fully defined freezing medium protein-free (Cryostore CS10) and highly controlled cooling rate, we achieved an optimal cell viability and a low apoptotic level from neural stem cell lines. Conclusions: Joining the stem cell biology expertise of the academy with the technology standards of the industry has allowed the development of reagents and processes to generate safe and effective stem cell lines. In this way, several neural stem cell lines have been established and made available to the scientific community.