Automated Enumeration and Viability Measurement of Canine Stromal Vascular Fraction Cells Using Fluorescence-Based Image Cytometry Method

In recent years, the lipoaspirate collected from adipose tissue has been seen as a valuable source of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells for autologous cellular therapy [1-3]. For multiple applications, adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells are isolated from the stromal vascular fraction (SVF) of adipose tissue. Because the fresh stromal vascular fraction typically contains a heterogeneous mixture of cells [4, 5], determining cell concentration and viability is a crucial step in preparing fraction samples for downstream processing. Due to a large amount of cellular debris contained in the SVF sample, as well as counting irregularities standard manual counting can lead to inconsistent results. Advancements in imaging and optics technologies have significantly improved the image-based cytometric analysis method. In this work, we validated the use of fluorescence-based image cytometry for SVF concentration and viability measurement, by comparing to standard flow cytometry and manual hemocytometer. The concentration and viability of freshly collected canine SVF samples are analyzed, and the results highly correlated between all three methods, which validated the image cytometry method for canine SVF analysis, and potentially for SVF from other species.