Objective(s): Ex vivo expansion of hematopoitic stem cells is an alternative way to increase umbilical cord blood (UCB)-CD34+ cells for bone marrow transplantation. For this purpose demineralized bone matrix (DBM) and mineralized bone allograft (MBA) as two scaffolds based on bone matrix and stem cell niche, were simultaneously used to enhance the effect of human mesenchymal pro...

Traditionally, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are cultured on inactivated live feeder cells. For clinical application using hESCs, there is a requirement to minimize the risk of contamination with animal components. Extracellular matrix (ECM) derived from feeder cells is the most natural way to provide xeno-free substrates for hESC growth. In this study, we optimized the step-by-step proced...

The role of interleukin 2 (IL 2) as a possible regulator of in vitro proliferation and differentiation of non-T acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells was investigated. For this purpose, leukemic cells from the blood or bone marrow of eight untreated patients with common or pre-B ALL were analyzed using the anti-Tac monoclonal antibody (reactive with the IL 2 receptor) in indirect immunofluor...

Preclinical studies have demonstrated the promising potential of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) for clinical application. To fulfil this goal, efficient and safe methods to generate them must be established. Various reprogramming techniques were presented during seven years of hiPSCs research. Genome non-integrating and completely xeno-free protocols from the first biopsy to stab...

The maintenance of undifferentiated human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) under xeno-free condition requires the use of human feeder cells or extracellular matrix (ECM) coating. However, human-derived sources may cause human pathogen contamination by viral or non-viral agents to the patients. Here we demonstrate feeder-free and xeno-free culture system for hPSC expansion using diffusion assisted ...

PiggyBac system has been shown to have a high efficiency to mediate gene transfer. However, there are no reports on its efficiency to mediate multiplex transgenes in mouse embryonic stem cells. Here we first established an immortalized feeder cell line by introducing four antibiotic resistance genes simultaneously into the original SNL 76/7 feeder cell line utilizing the PiggyBac system. This i...

Primary human epidermal stem cells isolated from skin tissues and subsequently expanded in tissue culture are used for human therapeutic use to reconstitute skin on patients and to generate artificial skin in culture for academic and commercial research. Classically, epidermal cells, known as keratinocytes, required fibroblast feeder support and serum-containing media for serial propagation. In...

In the present study, the effect of two types of allogeneic-derived feeder cells [porcine ear and tail skin fibroblasts (PESF, PTSF)] and three types of xenogeneic-derived feeder cells [human foreskin fibroblasts (HFK), mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) and immortalized mouse embryonic fibroblasts (STO)] on the isolation and cultivation of putative porcine embryonic stem cells (pESCs) was evalu...

Embryonic stem (ES) cells can differentiate into many cell types and are expected to be useful for tissue engineering. Recent reports have shown that ES cells can differentiate into insulin-producing cells in response to the transient expression of the pdx-1 gene, after the removal of feeder cells. To investigate the lineage of insulin-producing cells and their in vitro differentiation, we intr...