Kallos, Michael S.Sen, ArindomYuan, Yifan2017-12-182017-12-182012Yuan, Y. (2012). Bioprocessing of human bone marrow mesecnchymal stem cells for the treatment of intervertebral disc degeneration (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/4814http://hdl.handle.net/1880/105815Bibliography: p. 154-168Some pages are in colour.Lower back pain is a major medical problem in North America. From the biological point of view, the degeneration of intervertebral disc may be the main cause for lower back pain. The current study focused on using stem cell to differentiation into large number of healthy intervertebral disc cells. Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBM­MSCs) were used. This project has been divided into two parts: I. hBM-MSCs expansion, 2. hBM-MSCs differentiation. Experiments were carried out manipulating culture medium components ( oxygen tension, calcium, serum, pH) and agitation to improve the expansion of hBM-MSCs in bioreactors. After 33 days of culture under the developed protocol, approximately I 03 fold increase over the inoculation density had been obtained in suspension bioreactor culture. The differentiation of MSCs to nucleus pulposus-like cells was performed by using multiple growth factor cocktails and notochordal conditioned medium. There was higher expression of genes and proteins specific for nucleus pulposus cells, after exposure of MSCs to conditioned medium over 21 days than in basal medium.xx, 168 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.master thesis10.11575/PRISM/4814