title: A single-cell and feeder-free culture system for monkey embryonic stem cells.
abstract: Primate pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), hold great potential for research and application in regenerative medicine and drug discovery. To maximize primate PSC potential, a practical system is required for generating desired functional cells and reproducible differentiation techniques. Much progress regarding their culture systems has been reported to date; however, better methods would still be required for their practical use, particularly in industrial and clinical fields. Here we report a new single-cell and feeder-free culture system for primate PSCs, the key feature of which is an originally formulated serum-free medium containing FGF and activin. In this culture system, cynomolgus monkey ESCs can be passaged many times by single-cell dissociation with traditional trypsin treatment and can be propagated with a high proliferation rate as a monolayer without any feeder cells; further, typical PSC properties and genomic stability can be retained. In addition, it has been demonstrated that monkey ESCs maintained in the culture system can be used for various experiments such as in vitro differentiation and gene manipulation. Thus, compared with the conventional culture system, monkey ESCs grown in the aforementioned culture system can serve as a cell source with the following practical advantages: simple, stable, and easy cell maintenance; gene manipulation; cryopreservation; and desired differentiation. We propose that this culture system can serve as a reliable platform to prepare primate PSCs useful for future research and application.
authors: Discovery Molecular Pharmacology Department, Discovery Screening Center, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors: Takashi
authors: T
authors: Ono
authors: Discovery Molecular Pharmacology Department, Discovery Screening Center, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors: Yutaka
authors: Y
authors: Suzuki
authors: Discovery Molecular Pharmacology Department, Discovery Screening Center, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors: Yosuke
authors: Y
authors: Kato
authors: Discovery Molecular Pharmacology Department, Discovery Screening Center, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors: Risako
authors: R
authors: Fujita
authors: Discovery Molecular Pharmacology Department, Discovery Screening Center, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors: Toshihiro
authors: T
authors: Araki
authors: Discovery Molecular Pharmacology Department, Discovery Screening Center, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors: Tomoko
authors: T
authors: Yamashita
authors: Division of Developmental Biology, Research Center for Genomic Medicine, Saitama Medical University, Hidaka, Saitama, Japan.
authors: Hidemasa
authors: H
authors: Kato
authors: Research Center for Animal Life Science, Shiga University of Medical Science, Otsu, Shiga, Japan.
authors: Ryuzo
authors: R
authors: Torii
authors: Discovery Molecular Pharmacology Department, Discovery Screening Center, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
authors: Naoya
authors: N
authors: Sato
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D008252:Macaca fascicularis; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism