Human placenta-derived feeders support prolonged undifferentiated propagation of a human embryonic stem cell line, SNUhES3: comparison with human bone marrow-derived feeders.

Co-culture of human embryonic stem (ES) cells on mouse fibroblast feeders is the commonly used method for in vitro expansion of human ES cells in an undifferentiated state. However, it has potential risks of pathogen transmission from animals; thus, human cell-derived feeders have been employed to minimize this problem. In this study, we compared human placenta-derived feeders with bone marrow to demonstrate its effectiveness as feeders for in vitro long-term culture of human ES cells.

Hematopoietic differentiation of embryoid bodies derived from the human embryonic stem cell line SNUhES3 in co-culture with human bone marrow stromal cells.

Human embryonic stem (ES) cells can be induced to differentiate into hematopoietic precursor cells via two methods: the formation of embryoid bodies (EBs) and co-culture with mouse bone marrow (BM) stromal cells. In this study, the above two methods have been combined by co-culture of human ES-cell-derived EBs with human BM stromal cells. The efficacy of this method was compared with that using EB formation alone.