title: Characterization and evaluation of human embryonic stem cells.
abstract: Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) provide great opportunities for regenerative medicine, pharmacological and toxicological investigation, and the study of human embryonic development. These applications require proper derivation, maintenance, and extensive characterization of undifferentiated cells before being used for differentiation into cells of interest. Undifferentiated hESCs possess several unique features, including their extensive proliferation capacity in the undifferentiated state, ability to maintain a normal karyotype after long-term culture, expression of markers characteristic of stem cells, high constitutive telomerase activity, and capacity to differentiate into essentially all somatic cell types. This chapter will summarize the current development in culture conditions and provide technical details for the evaluation and characterization of hESCs.
authors.affiliation: Geron Corporation, Menlo Par, California, USA.
authors.forename: Chunhui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000943:Antigens, Differentiation / Q000032:analysis* / Q000096:biosynthesis; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D003470:Culture Media / Q000592:standards; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000145:classification / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007621:Karyotyping
chemical_list: D000943:Antigens, Differentiation; D003470:Culture Media