High Cell Density Cultivation of Human Leukemia T Cells (Jurkat Cells) in Semipermeable Polyelectrolyte Microcapsules

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Werner, Melanie ; Schmoldt, Daria ; Hilbrig, Frank ; Jérôme, Valérie ; Raup, Alexander ; Zambrano, Kenny ; Hübner, Holger ; Buchholz, Rainer ; Freitag, Ruth:
High Cell Density Cultivation of Human Leukemia T Cells (Jurkat Cells) in Semipermeable Polyelectrolyte Microcapsules.
In: Engineering in Life Sciences. Vol. 15 (2015) Issue 4 . - pp. 357-367.
ISSN 1618-2863
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/elsc.201400186

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The ex vivo expansion of human T cells is of considerable scientific and medical interest. Currently this requires the addition of massive amounts of stimuli. Here human leukemia T cells (Jurkat cells) were used as model cells to demonstrate the in vitro expansion of T cells in the absence of added stimuli after encapsulation in semipermeable sodium cellulose sulfate/poly(diallyldimethyl) ammonium chloride polyelectrolyte membrane capsules (molecular weight cut off: < 10 kDa, average diameter ca. 800 µm). For comparison, free and encapsulated cells were cultivated in standard T-flasks and spinner bottles (both 50 mL culture medium) as well as in hanging drops (35 µL, only non-encapsulated cells). Encapsulation led to a significantly higher specific growth rate, a prolonged exponential growth phase together with a reduced tendency for apoptosis, as evidenced by shifts in the cell cycle distribution towards the S and G2/M phases together with a reduced percentage of cells in the sub-G0/G1 phase. In consequence, very high cell densities (> 140 x 106 cells/mLcapsule) were obtained in the capsules, in particular for the spinner cultivations. No evidence for non-specific activation / stimulation, i.e. IL-2 and CD25 expression, was found, while specific stimulation by phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate / ionomycin was still possible. Since Jurkat cells commonly serve as model cells for primary T lymphocytes, the proposed method may present a strategy for high-density proliferation of primary human T lymphocytes.