title: Automated maintenance of embryonic stem cell cultures.
abstract: Embryonic stem cell (ESC) technology provides attractive perspectives for generating unlimited numbers of somatic cells for disease modeling and compound screening. A key prerequisite for these industrial applications are standardized and automated systems suitable for stem cell processing. Here we demonstrate that mouse and human ESC propagated by automated culture maintain their mean specific growth rates, their capacity for multi-germlayer differentiation, and the expression of the pluripotency-associated markers SSEA-1/Oct-4 and Tra-1-60/Tra-1-81/Oct-4, respectively. The feasibility of ESC culture automation may greatly facilitate the use of this versatile cell source for a variety of biomedical applications.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Reconstructive Neurobiology, Life & Brain Center, University of Bonn and Hertie Foundation, Bonn, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Terstegge
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Laufenberg
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pochert
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schenk
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Itskovitz-Eldor
authors.forename: Elmar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Endl
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Brüstle
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019149:Bioreactors; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods