Platelet lysate as an autologous alternative for fetal bovine serum in cardiovascular tissue engineering

There is an ongoing search for alternative tissue culture sera to engineer autologous tissues, since use of fetal bovine serum (FBS) is limited under Good Tissue Practice (GTP) guidelines. We compared FBS with human Platelet-lysate (PL) in media for in vitro cell culture. A threefold increase in duplication rate was found when human, saphenous vein-derived myofibroblasts were cultured in PL, while expression of marker proteins (a-smooth muscle actin, vimentin, desmin and non-muscle myosin heavy chain) was similar. Hsp47 mRNA-expression was increased in PL-cells and type III collagen fibers were seen on PL-cell monolayers, but not on cells cultured in FBS. These results imply a more efficient collagen fiber production. We also found higher levels of proteins involved in tissue repair and collagen remodeling, which could explain increased production of proteases and protease inhibitors by PL-cells. Our findings indicate that PL is beneficial because of the increased duplication rate, in addition to the increased matrix production and remodeling. This could lead to production of strong tissue with properly organized collagen fibers, which is important for heart valve tissue engineering.