Bone marrow-derived cells for cardiovascular cell therapy: an optimized GMP method based on low-density gradient improves cell purity and function

Background Cardiovascular cell therapy represents a promising field, with several approaches currently being tested. The advanced therapy medicinal product (ATMP) for the ongoing METHOD clinical study ("Bone marrow derived cell therapy in the stable phase of chronic ischemic heart disease") consists of fresh mononuclear cells (MNC) isolated from autologous bone marrow (BM) through density gradient centrifugation on standard Ficoll-Paque. Cells are tested for safety (sterility, endotoxin), identity/potency (cell count, CD45/CD34/CD133, viability) and purity (contaminant granulocytes and platelets). The aims of the present work were (1) to optimize the cell manufacturing process in order to reduce contaminants and (2) to implement additional assays in order to improve product characterization and evaluate product stability.