Culturing Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Using Human Fetal Femur Derived Mscs and Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts: A Comparative Study

Numerous studies have shown the successful use of human stromal cells as feeders for the propagation of pluripotent stem cells. In this study, we investigated the use of human fetal femur-derived mesenchymal stem cells (fMSCs) as an alternative to MEFs. We comparatively cultured over several passages hESCs and iPSCs on fMSCs and MEFs as feeder layers as well as conditioned medium (CM) produced from both cell types. A quality check for CM is the concentration of secreted Activin A, which is known to support self-renewal of pluripotent stem cells. The level of Activin A in fMSC-CM was higher compared to MEF-CM when prepared under identical conditions. Furthermore, fMSCs secrete numerous factors amongst these are FGF2, FGF19, VEGF, PDGF-AA, IL-11 which are involved in proliferation processes. The current study demonstrates that human fMSCs provide several advantages over MEFs and can be used as an alternative for routine propagation of pluripotent stem cells. Use of fMSC obviates the unnecessary need for breeding mice solely for the production of MEFs, therefore addressing the important issue of animal usage for MEF generation and most importantly avoids the risk of contaminating human cells with mouse pathogens. *Corresponding author: James Adjaye, Chair for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany, Tel: (0211) 8108191; Fax: (0211) 8117858; E-mail: [email protected] Citation: Matz P, Oreffo RO, Adjaye J (2016) Culturing Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Using Human Fetal Femur Derived Mscs and Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts: A Comparative Study. Enliven: J Stem Cells Regen Med 3(1):001. Copyright: 2016 Dr. James Adjaye. This is an Open Access article published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Received Date: 18th January 2016 Accepted Date: 11th March 2016 Published Date: 17th March 2016 Research Article Enliven: Journal of Stem Cell Research & Regenerative Medicine ISSN: 2379-5751 www.enlivenarchive.org