Chemical genomics approach to human embryonic stem cell-self renewal

人类胚胎干细胞(HESCs)和诱导的多能细胞具有为再生医学提供无限组织来源的潜力。为此，在无饲养层的条件下发展限定的/无异种培养系统对于扩大人类胚胎干细胞至关重要。大多数用于hESCs培养的已确定的/无异种的培养液含有碱性成纤维细胞生长因子(BFGF)。因此，碱性成纤维细胞生长因子被认为对hESCs在未分化状态下的扩增几乎起着至关重要的作用。在这里，我们报告了一些小分子的鉴定，其中一些是神经递质拮抗剂(曲米帕明和乙丙嗪)，它们可以在没有碱性成纤维细胞生长因子的情况下促进hESC的长期自我更新。HESCs保持高水平的多能标记表达，传20代后核型正常，可分化为三个胚层。

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent cells have the potential to provide an unlimited source of tissues for regenerative medicine. For this purpose, development of defined/xeno-free culture systems under feeder-free conditions is essential for the expansion of hESCs. Most defined/xeno-free media for the culture of hESCs contain basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Therefore, bFGF is thought to have an almost essential role for the expansion of hESCs in an undifferentiated state. Here, we report identification of small molecules, some of which were neurotransmitter antagonists (trimipramine and ethopropazine), which promote long-term hESC self-renewal without bFGF in the medium. The hESCs maintained high expression levels of pluripotency markers, had a normal karyotype after 20 passages, and could differentiate into all three germ layers.