Abstract
Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent and capable of indefinite self-renewal in vitro. Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) have generally been cultivated on feeder layers of primary mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) in media supplemented with fetal calf serum (FCS). However, serum contains a wide variety of biologically active compounds that might adversely affect hESC growth and differentiation. Thus, cultivation of stem cells in FCS complicates experimental approaches to define the intracellular mechanisms required for hESC maintenance. This chapter describes the serum-free maintenance of hESC in culture by addition of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF). This complete protocol provides a chemically defined serum-free system that is advantageous for studying signaling pathways involved in hESC pluripotency.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Reubinoff BE, Pera MF, Fong CY, Trounson A, Bongso A (2000) Embryonic stem cell lines from human blastocysts: somatic differentiation in vitro. Nat Biotechnol 18:399–404
Thomson JA, Itskovitz-Eldor J, Shapiro SS, Waknitz MA, Swiergiel JJ, Marshall VS, Jones JM (1998) Embryonic stem cell lines derived from human blastocysts. Science 282:1145–1147
Amit M, Carpenter MK, Inokuma MS, Chiu CP, Harris CP, Waknitz MA, Itskovitz-Eldor J, Thomson JA (2000) Clonally derived human embryonic stem cell lines maintain pluripotency and proliferative potential for prolonged periods of culture. Dev Biol 227:271–278
Ludwig TE, Bergendahl V, Levenstein ME, Yu J, Probasco MD, Thomson JA (2006) Feeder-independent culture of human embryonic stem cells. Nat Methods 3:637–646
Pébay A, Wong RC, Pitson SM, Wolvetang EJ, Peh GS, Filipczyk A, Koh KL, Tellis I, Nguyen LT, Pera MF (2005) Essential roles of sphingosine-1-phosphate and platelet-derived growth factor in the maintenance of human embryonic stem cells. Stem Cells 23:1541–1548
Wong RC, Tellis I, Jamshidi P, Pera M, Pébay A (2007) Anti-apoptotic effect of sphingosine-1-phosphate and platelet-derived growth factor in human embryonic stem cells. Stem Cells Dev 16:989–1001
Draper JS, Smith K, Gokhale P, Moore HD, Maltby E, Johnson J, Meisner L, Zwaka TP, Thomson JA, Andrews PW (2004) Recurrent gain of chromosomes 17q and 12 in cultured human embryonic stem cells. Nat Biotechnol 22:53–54
Maitra A, Arking DE, Shivapurkar N, Ikeda M, Stastny V, Kassauei K, Sui G, Cutler DJ, Liu Y, Brimble SN, Noaksson K, Hyllner J, Schulz TC, Zeng X, Freed WJ, Crook J, Abraham S, Colman A, Sartipy P, Matsui SI, Carpenter M, Gazdar AF, Rao M, Chakravarti A (2005) Genomic alterations in cultured human embryonic stem cells. Nat Genet 37:1099–1103
Inzunza J, Sahlen S, Holmberg K, Stromberg AM, Teerijoki H, Blennow E, Hovatta O, Malmgren H (2004) Comparative genomic hybridization and karyotyping of human embryonic stem cells reveals the occurrence of an isodicentric X chromosome after long-term cultivation. Mol Hum Reprod 10:461–466
Acknowledgments
R.C.B. Wong is supported by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine Grant RC1-00110-1. A.P. is supported by a NHMRC/Victorian Neurotrauma Initiative Career Development Award.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Wong, R.C.B., Pera, M.F., Pébay, A. (2012). Maintenance of Human Embryonic Stem Cells by Sphingosine-1-Phosphate and Platelet-Derived Growth Factor. In: Pébay, A., Turksen, K. (eds) Sphingosine-1-Phosphate. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 874. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-800-9_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-800-9_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-61779-799-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-61779-800-9
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols