Growth Factors and the Serum-free Culture of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Abstract

This chapter reviews the current status of the development of culture systems for human embryoniv stem (ES) cells in the context of previous work on mouse ES cells and human embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells. The development of human embryonic stem ES cells in 1998, presaged by work on stem cell lines from human EC and monkey ES cells, led to a great surge of interest in the biology and potential therapeutic applications of pluripotent stem cells. Early reports of derivation of both monkey and human ES cells used serum-containing medium in combination with mouse embryo feeder cell, support to maintain stem cell renewal methodology that did not differ very much from those used previously to esta..