Abstract
Stem cell culture systems that rely on undefined animal-derived components introduce variability to the cultures and complicate their therapeutic use. The derivation of human embryonic stem cells and the development of methods to produce induced pluripotent stem cells combined with their potential to treat human diseases have accelerated the drive to develop xenogenic-free, chemically defined culture systems that support pluripotent self-renewal and directed differentiation. In this chapter, we describe four xeno-free culture systems that have been successful in supporting undifferentiated growth of hPSCs as well as methods for xeno-free subculture and cryopreservation of hPSCs. Each culture system consists of a xeno-free growth medium and xeno-free substratum: (1) TeSR2™ with human recombinant laminin (LN-511); (2) NutriStem™ with LN-511; (3) RegES™ with human foreskin fibroblasts (hFFs); (4) KO-SR Xeno-Free™/GF cocktail with CELLstart™ matrix.
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Acknowledgments
Our hESC and iPSC culture optimization studies have been supported by EU: ESTOOLS, ISCI2, the Swedish Research Council, and the R&D Funds (ALF) of Stockholm County and Karolinska Institute and KID funds of Karolinska Institute. Special Note: Outi Hovatta is a patent holder of the RegES medium.
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Bergström, R., Ström, S., Holm, F., Feki, A., Hovatta, O. (2011). Xeno-Free Culture of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. In: Schwartz, P., Wesselschmidt, R. (eds) Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 767. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-201-4_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-201-4_9
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