Mukhamedshin A, Reddington RC, Dinh MTP, Abhishek K, Iqbal M, Manheim M, Gifford SC, Shevkoplyas SS. Rapid, label-free enrichment of lymphocytes in a closed system using a flow-through microfluidic device.
Bioeng Transl Med 2024;
9:e10602. [PMID:
38193116 PMCID:
PMC10771558 DOI:
10.1002/btm2.10602]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2023] [Revised: 09/07/2023] [Accepted: 09/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/10/2024] Open
Abstract
The majority of adoptive cellular therapies are produced from peripheral mononuclear cells obtained via leukapheresis and further enriched for the cells of interest (e.g., T cells). Here, we present a first-of-its-kind closed system, which effectively removes ~85% of monocytes and ~88% of platelets, while recovering ~88% of concentrated T cells in a separate output stream, as the leukapheresis sample flows through a microfluidic device at 5 mL/min. The system is driven by a common peristaltic pump, enabled by a novel pressure wave dampener, and operates in a closed bag-to-bag configuration, without requiring any specialized, dedicated equipment. When compared to standard density gradient centrifugation on paired samples, the new system demonstrated a 1.5-fold increase in T cell recovery and a 2-fold reduction in inter-sample variability for this separation outcome. The T cell-to-monocyte ratio of the leukapheresis sample was increased to 20:1, whereas with density gradient processing it decreased to 2:1. As a result of superior purity and/or gentler processing, T cells enriched by the system showed a 2.7-times higher fold expansion during subsequent culture, and an overall 3.5-times higher cumulative yield. This centrifugation-free and label-free closed system for enriching lymphocytes could significantly simplify and standardize the manufacturing of life-saving cellular therapies.
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