Comparative study of mouse and human feeder cells for human embryonic stem cells
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2008 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | The International journal of developmental biology |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Genetics and molecular biology |
| Keywords | hESCs; human embryonic stem cell; growth factor production; undifferentiated growth |
| Description | Various types of feeder cells have been adopted for the culture of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to improve their attachment and provide them with stemness-supporting factors. Here, we compared the expression and secretion of four well-established regulators of hESC pluripotency and/or differentiation among five lines of human foreskin fibroblasts and primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts throughout a standard hESC culture procedure. We found that production of TGFbeta1, activin A, and FGF-2 varied considerably among the human-derived feeder cell lines. Low- and high-producing human feeder cells as well as mouse feeder cells were evaluated for their ability to support the undifferentiated growth of hESCs and for the expression of stem cell markers. Our results suggest that the ability of a feeder layer to promote the undifferentiated growth of hESCs is attributable to its characteristic growth factor production. |