Research Article Clinically Relevant Solution for the Hypothermic Storage and Transportation of Human Multipotent Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Yuriy Petrenko , 1 Milada Chudickova, 1 Irena Vackova, 1 Tomas Groh, 1,2 Eliska Kosnarova, 1,2 Jitka Cejkova , 1 Karolina Turnovcova, 1 Alexander Petrenko, 3 Eva Sykova, 1,4 and Sarka Kubinova 1 1 Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic 2 Bioinova Ltd., Prague, Czech Republic 3 Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kharkiv, Ukraine 4 Institute of Neuroimmunology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia Correspondence should be addressed to Yuriy Petrenko; yuriy.petrenko@iem.cas.cz Received 9 July 2018; Revised 6 October 2018; Accepted 23 October 2018; Published 20 January 2019 Academic Editor: Mahmood S. Choudhery Copyright © 2019 Yuriy Petrenko et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The wide use of human multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) in clinical trials requires a full-scale safety and identity evaluation of the cellular product and subsequent transportation between research/medical centres. This necessitates the prolonged hypothermic storage of cells prior to application. The development of new, nontoxic, and efficient media, providing high viability and well-preserved therapeutic properties of MSCs during hypothermic storage, is highly relevant for a successful clinical outcome. In this study, a simple and effective trehalose-based solution was developed for the hypothermic storage of human bone marrow MSC suspensions for further clinical applications. Human bone marrow MSCs were stored at 4 ° C for 24, 48, and 72 hrs in the developed buffered trehalose solution and compared to several research and clinical grade media: Plasma- Lyte® 148, HypoThermosol® FRS, and Ringer’s solution. After the storage, the preservation of viability, identity, and therapeutically associated properties of MSCs were assessed. The hypothermic storage of MSCs in the new buffered trehalose solution provided significantly higher MSC recovery rates and ability of cells for attachment and further proliferation, compared to Plasma-Lyte® 148 and Ringer’s solution, and was comparable to research-grade HypoThermosol® FRS. There were no differences in the immunophenotype, osteogenic, and adipogenic differentiation and the immunomodulatory properties of MSCs after 72 hrs of cold storage in these solutions. The obtained results together with the confirmed therapeutic properties of trehalose previously described provide sufficient evidence that the developed trehalose medium can be applied as a low-cost and efficient solution for the hypothermic storage of MSC suspensions, with a high potential for translation into clinical practice. 1. Introduction Multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are currently the most widely studied and applied cell type in regenerative medicine, with more than 700 registered clinical trials con- ducted worldwide (https://clinicaltrials.gov). High cell acces- sibility together with their unique paracrine and replacement properties drives the MSC research towards its translation into clinical practice [1, 2]. The clinical grade manufacturing process of MSCs comprises a number of regulated steps, aimed at assuring the safety and identity of the final cellular product. Many studies show different aspects of the clinical grade manufacturing of MSCs [3, 4]. The application of a chemically defined culture media, xeno-free supplements for in vitro expansion, and banking of MSCs are thoroughly discussed elsewhere [5, 6]. These studies provide key infor- mation for optimising the cell manufacturing process, to obtain safe and efficient cellular therapies. Prior to clinical application, the safety and identity of the final MSC-based product must be confirmed by a panel of Hindawi Stem Cells International Volume 2019, Article ID 5909524, 11 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5909524