Why does media matter?

Every material used at every stage of a cell therapy workflow can impact the efficacy of the final deliverable drug. Gibco CTS OpTmizer One Serum Free Medium (SFM) takes this into account. Not only is this thoughtfully designed nutrition for T-cells, but it is an animal origin-free (AOF) formulation.

Why is that important? The risk of contamination with an adventitious agent is a serious concern when starting with a small sample of cells and a waiting patient. An animal origin-free formulation helps mitigate this risk.

Of course, there are other critical factors that a cell culture medium directly influences. Manufacturers tend to prefer the early memory T-cell phenotype. They also need high viability, low variability, and a medium that is flexible to scale up to other vessels.

Enhanced T-cell expansion, high viability, and early memory cell phenotype

The Gibco CTS OpTmizer family of media has been used in over 200 clinical trials, so it’s fair to say we know media. Data shows that our newest addition—the CTS OpTmizer One SFM—helps to meet manufacturer needs with robust T-cell expansion, while maintaining high T-cell viability and early memory phenotype.

In a study of healthy donors, the CTS OpTmizer One SFM supported comparable or higher total cell counts relative to those supported with two AOF media and one xeno-free medium from other suppliers (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Healthy donor cell expansion.

In addition, through day 10, CD3+ cells with CTS OpTmizer One SFM maintained comparable or higher average expression of CCR7+ CD62L+, CD27+ CD62L+, and CD45RO+ CD62L+ early memory cell phenotype markers (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Healthy Donor T cell Phenotype.

In a study of diseased donors, CTS OpTmizer One SFM supported a more consistent and stronger expansion of 284-fold by day 10 relative to media from other suppliers for two donors with AML (Figure 3). While cells from two CLL diseased donors demonstrated a higher average expansion of 80-fold with CTS OpTmizer SFM.

Figure 3. Diseased donor cell expansion.

The media also supported comparably high viability and more consistent maintenance of early memory cell phenotype than the other suppliers’ media in both diseased donor cells.

To ask again, why is this important? The answer is that cell therapy media plays a crucial role in the potency and efficacy of the final drug product. That is why thoughtfully designed nutrition is so important.

Read about these experiments in detail in this application note, discussing how CTS OpTmizer One SFM offers enhanced T-cell expansion and high viability while maintaining early memory cell phenotype.

Please visit our website to learn more about cell therapy media.