Thromb Haemost 2016; 115(02): 250-256
DOI: 10.1160/th15-07-0570
Review Article
Schattauer GmbH

Translational approaches to functional platelet production ex vivo

Alessandra Balduini
1   Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
2   Biotechnology Research Laboratories, IRCCS San Matteo Foundation, Pavia, Italy
3   Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
,
Christian A. Di Buduo
1   Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
2   Biotechnology Research Laboratories, IRCCS San Matteo Foundation, Pavia, Italy
,
David L. Kaplan
3   Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
› Author Affiliations

Financial support: This paper was supported by Cariplo Foundation (2010–0807 and and 2013–0717), Italian Ministry of Health (grant RF-2009–1550218) and US National Institutes of Health (grant EB016041–01). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Further Information

Publication History

Received: 16 July 2015

Accepted after minor revision: 11 August 2015

Publication Date:
21 November 2017 (online)

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Summary

Platelets, which are released by megakaryocytes, play key roles in haemostasis, angiogenesis, immunity, tissue regeneration and wound healing. The scarcity of clinical cures for life threatening platelet diseases is in a large part due to limited insight into the mechanisms that control the developmental process of megakaryocytes and the mechanisms that govern the production of platelets within the bone marrow. To overcome these limitations, functional human tissue models have been developed and studied to extrapolate ex vivo outcomes for new insight on bone marrow functions in vivo. There are many challenges that these models must overcome, from faithfully mimicking the physiological composition and functions of bone marrow, to the collection of the platelets generated and validation of their viability and function for human use. The overall goal is to identify innovative instruments to study mechanisms of platelet release, diseases related to platelet production and new therapeutic targets starting from human progenitor cells.