Team Develops Equipment to Make More iPS Cell-Derived Platelets

Kyoto, June 17 (Jiji Press)--A team including Kyoto University researchers has developed equipment capable of producing five times more platelets derived from induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells than existing apparatus.

A paper on the study was released on an international journal Monday. The team includes scientists of the national university's Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, or CiRA.

The team, working to mass-produce iPS cell-derived platelets, hopes that its findings will boost moves to realize commercial production of platelet products, currently made from donated blood.

Platelets help stop bleeding by clumping together around a damaged part of a blood vessel to form a clot. They are created when megakaryocytes are exposed to irregular blood flows.

In 2014, the team developed a method for producing megakaryocytes from human iPS cells.

It then came up with a culture apparatus with an iPS cell-derived platelet production capacity of 8 liters in 2018. Using this, the team conducted a clinical trial involving patients with thrombocytopenia, a condition characterized by a very low platelet count in the blood.

When the team tried to create equipment with a bigger production capacity, its efforts led to a decrease in the quality of the platelets produced or a fall in production efficiency because irregular flows of blood happened insufficiently inside the equipment.

After some attempts, the team designed a new apparatus with a production capacity of 45 liters using three disks to mix the contents of the equipment. A simulation run by the team showed that irregular blood flows occurred throughout the equipment.

"We hope to use the new apparatus to further our study, aiming for early commercialization," said Koji Eto, professor at CiRA.

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