Fig. 1

Conceptual illustration of serial-passage potency prediction using a morphological profile for selecting a high-potency cell bank. The target RECs were sorted from the MSCs via the clone selection step (P1 and P2). At P3, cells were cryopreserved to form the primary cell bank for preparing early passage cells for further experiments. Serial-passage tests were examined from P3 till the limitation of the passage. For the practical cell-based therapeutic product manufacturing, the candidate cell bank is formed during such serial passages. However, there are risks; for example, cells show unexpected growth termination, which results in cell bank establishment failure. Furthermore, the formation of a better-quality candidate cell bank which possesses lower risks of having banked cells which loses further proliferation potency but has higher potency of further activity is expected. Such serial-passage potency was predicted from the morphological profile in the P2 stage cell images. The morphological profile comprises time course × 12 morphological descriptors × cell population information (mean and SD)