Stem cells (SCs) with the amazing feature of differentiability into different cell types have opened the golden gate into the field of regenerative medicine. Within decades the basic biology and operational protocols have been developed for these cells and this made them suitable for curing critical diseases. All the amazing power of stem cells draw attention of beauty industry to apply such cell for development of novel products in both skin care and skin treatment objectives.
Topical use is the most common administration route in the aesthetic medicine and the difficulty of absorption of stem cell from the skin barrier becomes an issue in development of whole stem cell containing products. Fortunately, variety of growth factors and cytokines have been expressed during culture of stem cells. Therefore, the spent media of stem cell culture found special popularity in the cosmetic industry. This so called “Conditioned medium” became an innovative technology in this field and their applicability in the skin care, hair care, re-pigmentation and hair growth have been proven by various commercial cosmetic products. Using such media have some benefits regarding the ease of handling and storage and less safety issues in comparison with the SCs.
Different commercial developments have targeted variety of stem cells to be used within the products. Such stem cells could be applied in whole or their conditioned media could be added to base serums. Table 1 provides the applicable stem cells in aesthetic medicine. As it is presented in Table 1, due to the requirement of direct injection of the whole SCs, most of the commercial products have relied on application of the conditioned media. Nevertheless, the various SC-based products also step into the approval procedure and some have completed their way up to Phase III trials.
Table 1- Applicable SC sources in aesthetic and cosmetic industry
Within the way to develop a cosmetic SC-based product, there are some decision points which have to be made. Such issues are evaluated in the following sections:
SC source selection
Regarding different sources of stem cells, Adipose-derived Stem Cells (ASCs) gains special popularity. ASCs are adult multipotent stem cells which could be obtained via lipoaspiration of fat tissues. The ease of isolation with less donor site morbidity becomes highlighted in application of these cells and preparation of their CMs and most of the available commercial products rely on these cells. However, there are several considerations related to ASCs. First of all, the differentiation potential of ASCs may depend on the anatomic location of the fat and the donor’s gender and age. Secondly, there exists some ambiguity in molecular mechanisms of differentiation of these cells into different lineages. [1] As represented in Table 1, other sources could also be used which comprises their own technical challenges that addressed within the literature.
Autologous Vs. Allogenic
Decision on autologous or allogenic approaches have different impacts on manufacturing, business, and supply chain models. The technical manufacturing issues is depicted in Figure 1 which adapted from [2]. In nutshell, the optimum decision is a trade-off regarding lowered quality and immunogenic risks associated with autologous products and more facilities and logistic required.
Stem cells Vs. Conditioned Media
As already mentioned, issues related to the safety, ethics, regulations, controlled in vivo differentiation, tumorigenicity and storage of SCs, making the less acceptable for skin care and rejuvenation objectives. But the therapeutic power of SCs could not be denied and still making the interesting choice for treatment of skin disorders. Successful cell-based therapy requires migration, homing and in vivo differentiation of SCs into target cells. As a result, the potential clinical benefit-to-risk must be weighed and balanced in development of SC therapies. Additionally, it is worth to be mentioned that SC-based products have to be administrated via intradermal injection which necessitates the validations required for the aseptic injectable products. [3]
[1] Mizuno, H., Tobita, M. and Uysal, A.C. (2012). Concise Review: Adipose-Derived Stem Cells as a Novel Tool for Future Regenerative Medicine. STEM CELLS, 30(5), pp.804–810. https://doi.org/10.1002/stem.1076.
[2] Couto, P.S., Bersenevb, A. and Rafiqa, Q.A. (2020). Process Development and Manufacturing Approaches for Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapies. Engineering Strategies for Regenerative Medicine, [online] pp.33–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816221-7.00002-1.
[3] Mizuno, H., Tobita, M. and Uysal, A.C. (2012). Concise Review: Adipose-Derived Stem Cells as a Novel Tool for Future Regenerative Medicine. STEM CELLS, 30(5), pp.804–810. https://doi.org/10.1002/stem.1076.
No comment