Human embryonic stem cell studies in the Teitell lab are supported by a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) seed grant RS1-00313. We thank members of the Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, especially Dr. Amander Clark, Dr. Jerome Zack, and members of the UCLA Broad Institute Stem Cell Core Facility for their support of our studies.

Splitting human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) plated on mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs)
Usually a confluent hESC plate can be split 1:6 to 1:10, depending on the particular hESC line. The split plate will become confluent again 5-7 days after splitting.
<ol>
<li>Two days before splitting, gelatinize plates using a 0.1% gelatin solution. For a 6-well plate, add 2ml into each well and incubate plate in a 37&deg;C, 5% CO2 tissue culture incubator overnight.</li>
<li>Plate MEFs on gelatinized 6-well plates the day before you plan on splitting the hESCs. (NOTE: MEFs can be plated as many as 3 days earlier if needed. After ~ 3 days, MEFs become flatter and more spread-out and cannot sustain hESCs as well as fresher MEFs can.) Take a vial of g-irradiated or mitomycin C treated CF1 MEFs, containing 5-6 x 106 cells, from liquid nitrogen and thaw for 2 min in a 37&deg;C water bath. Wash cells once with warm MEF Culture Media in a 50ml falcon tube and resuspend in the final volume of warm MEF Culture Media. At 5-6 x 106 cells, this is enough to plate two or three 6-well plates.</li>
<li>While the MEFs are being washed, take out the gelatinized plates, remove all solution from the wells and add 2.5 ml of MEF Culture Media per well. </li>
<li>Add 0.5 ml of MEF suspension per well to achieve 3ml as a final volume in each well. Make sure MEFs are evenly dispersed and place plates back in the incubator overnight to settle.</li>
<li>On the day of hESC splitting, prepare fresh or use &lt; 2 week-old sterile collagenase IV solution at 1mg/ml. Remove all the media from the hESC wells you want to split, wash once with 2ml per well of warm 1&times;PBS, pH 7.4, and add 1ml of collagenase IV solution. Incubate at 37&deg;C for 5-10 min. Take the 6-well hESC plate out of the incubator and add 1ml of ES media (without bFGF) to each well. Using the solution in each well, with a 1ml pipette suck up the media and blow the stem cells off of the plate. For each well this will take about 5 to 10 repetitions. Then, transfer the suspended hESCs into a 50ml falcon tube. Do this for all the wells being split and combine in one 50ml falcon tube. Pellet the hESCs at room temperature at 200g for 5 min and wash one time with ES media lacking bFGF.</li>
<li>While the hESCs are being washed, take out the MEF plates, remove all media from the wells and wash once with sterile, warm 1&times;PBS, pH 7.4 then add 2.5 ml of ES media (now supplemented with 10 ng/ml bFGF) per well.</li>
<li>Resuspend the pelleted hESCs in an appropriate volume of ES media, supplemented with 10ng/ml bFGF. (NOTE: When the hESCs are resuspended, they should be of roughly uniform colony size and shape. The resuspension volume depends on the splitting ratio.) Carefully pipette the hESC suspension up and down a few times to make the colonies smaller and more uniform, but not so much that single cells or very small colonies are generated. Add 0.5 ml of hESC suspension per well to the MEF plates to achieve 3 ml as a final volume in each well. Visually check to make sure that the hESCs are distributed evenly before placing the plates back in the incubator overnight to settle. After plating, it will usually take a few days for colonies to take on their characteristic shape and border appearance.</li>
</ol>

<ol>
	<li>Thomson, J. a. m. e. s. A., Itskovitz-Eldor, J. o. s. e. p. h., Shapiro, S. a. n. d. e. r. S., Waknitz, M. i. c. h. e. l. l. e. A., Swiergiel, J. e. n. n. i. f. e. r. J., Marshall, V. i. v. i. e. n. n. e. S., Jones, J. e. f. f. r. e. y. M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Embryonic+Stem+Cell+Lines+Derived+from+Human+Blastocysts.">Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Derived from Human Blastocysts.</a> Science . 282, 1145-1147 (1998).</li><li>Xu, C. h. u. n. h. u. i., Inokuma, M. a. r. g. a. r. e. t. S., Denham, J. e. r. r. o. d., Golds, K. a. t. h. a. l. e. e. n., Kundu, P. r. a. t. i. m. a., Gold, J. o. s. e. p. h. D., Carpenter, M. e. l. i. s. s. a. K. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Feeder-free+growth+of+undifferentiated+human+embryonic+stem+cells.">Feeder-free growth of undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells.</a> Nature Biotechnology . 19, 971-974 (2001).</li></ol>

This video demonstrates how to grow human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) on mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) feeder cells. In the last step before plating, when the hESCs are resuspended, they should be of roughly uniform colony size and shape. Carefully pipette the hESC suspension up and down a few times to make the colonies smaller and more uniform, but not so much that single cells or very small colonies are generated.Immunofluorescence staining and microscopy or flow cytometry for hESC pluripotency markers, such as Oct...

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<td>Knockout Serum Replacer (KSR)</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Gibco</td>
<td>10828-028</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>DMEM/F12</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Gibco</td>
<td>11330-057</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td> Non-essential Amino Acids</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Gibco</td>
<td>11140-050</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>GlutaMax </td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Gibco</td>
<td>35050-061</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
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<td>DMEM</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Gibco</td>
<td>11995-065</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
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<td>FBS</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Clontech</td>
<td>631107</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
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<td>L-glutamine</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Gibco</td>
<td>25030-081</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
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<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Fisher</td>
<td>BP176-100</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
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<td>Reagent</td>
<td>R&D Systems</td>
<td>233-FB-025</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
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<td>Collagenase IV</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Gibco</td>
<td>17104-019</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
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<td>Dispase</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Stem Cell Technologies</td>
<td>17105-041</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>Penicillin / Streptomycin </td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Gibco</td>
<td>15140-122</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
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<td>Gelatin</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Chemicon</td>
<td>ES-006-B</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
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<td>Matrigel</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>BD Biosciences</td>
<td>354277</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
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<td>Oct-4 antibody</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Santa Cruz Biotechnology</td>
<td>SC-9081</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
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<td>anti-h/mSSEA-4 Phycoerythrin Conjugated Mouse IgG3</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>R&D Systems</td>
<td>FAB1435P</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>FITCI-conjugated antirabbit IgG</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories. Inc.</td>
<td>715-095-152</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>		</tbody>
		</table>
		</div>

from mefs to matrigel i: passaging hescs in the presence of mefs

This video demonstrates how to grow human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) on mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) feeder cells.


Watch this Scientific Journal Video about From MEFs to Matrigel I: Passaging hESCs in the Presence of MEFs at JoVE.com

From MEFs to Matrigel I: Passaging hESCs in the Presence of MEFs

This video demonstrates how to grow human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) on mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) feeder cells. Part 1 of 3.

This video demonstrates how to grow human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) on mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) feeder cells.
...

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12.6K Views.  University of California, Los Angeles. This video demonstrates how to grow human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) on mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) feeder cells. Part 1 of 3.

Video: From MEFs to Matrigel I: Passaging hESCs in the Presence of MEFs

Passaging Human Neural Stem Cells

The ability to manipulate human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs) in vitro provides a means to investigate their utility as cell transplants for therapeutic purposes as well as to explore many fundamental processes of human neural development and pathology.  This protocol presents a simple method of culturing and passaging hNSPCs in hopes of standardizing this technique and increasing reproducibility of human stem cell research.  The hNSPCs we use were isolated from cadaveric postnatal brain cortices by the National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource and grown as adherent cultures on flasks coated with fibronectin (Palmer et al., 2001; Schwartz et al., 2003).  We culture our hNSPCs in a DMEM:F12 serum-free media supplemented with EGF, FGF, and PDGF and passage them 1:2 approximately every seven days.  Using these conditions, the majority of the cells in the culture maintain a bipolar morphology and express markers of undifferentiated neural stem cells (such as nestin and sox2).

The ability to manipulate human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs) in vitro allows to investigate their utility as cell transplants for therapeutic purposes and to explore human neural development. This protocol presents a method of culturing and passaging hNSPCs in hopes of increasing reproducibility of human stem cell research.

The ability to manipulate human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs) in vitro provides a means to investigate their utility as cell transplants for ...

Labeling hESCs and hMSCs with Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Non-Invasive in vivo Tracking with MR Imaging

In recent years, stem cell research has led to a better understanding of developmental biology, various diseases and its potential impact on regenerative medicine. A non-invasive method to monitor the transplanted stem cells repeatedly in vivo would greatly enhance our ability to understand the mechanisms that control stem cell death and identify trophic factors and signaling pathways that improve stem cell engraftment. MR imaging has been proven to be an effective tool for the in vivo depiction of stem cells with near microscopic anatomical resolution. In order to detect stem cells with MR, the cells have to be labeled with cell specific MR contrast agents. For this purpose, iron oxide nanoparticles, such as superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (SPIO), are applied, because of their high sensitivity for cell detection and their excellent biocompatibility. SPIO particles are composed of an iron oxide core and a dextran, carboxydextran or starch coat, and function by creating local field inhomogeneities, that cause a decreased signal on T2-weighted MR images. This presentation will demonstrate techniques for labeling of stem cells with clinically applicable MR contrast agents for subsequent non-invasive in vivo tracking of the labeled cells with MR imaging.

For the evaluation of new stem cell therapies it is important to non-invasively track the injected cells in vivo. This video will show you how to label human mesenchymal and embryonic stem cells with iron oxide based contrast agents in vivo for subsequent MR imaging in vivo.

In recent years, stem cell research has led to a better understanding of developmental biology, various diseases and its potential impact on regenerative ...

Generating iPS Cells from MEFS through Forced Expression of Sox-2, Oct-4, c-Myc, and Klf4

Pluripotency can be induced in differentiated murine by viral transduction of Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc (Takahashi and Yamanaka, 2006; Wernig, et al., 2007; Okita, et al., 2007; Maherali, et al., 2007). We have devised a reprogramming strategy in which these four transcription factors are expressed from doxycycline (dox)-inducible lentiviral vectors (Brambrink et al., 2008). Using these inducible constructs, we can derive induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). In this video, we demonstrate the procedure for the generation of inducible lentiviruses that express the four transcription factors and show how to infect MEFs with these viruses in order to produce iPS cells. By using inducible lentiviruses, the expression of the four factors in controlled by the addition of doxycyline to the culture medium. The advantage of this system over the traditional retroviral infection is the ability to turn the genes on and off so that the kinetics of reprogramming and gene expression requirements can be analyzed in detail.

This video shows the procedure for generating induced pluripotent stem cells using inducible lentivirus that express Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc and Klf4.

Pluripotency can be induced in differentiated murine by viral transduction of Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc (Takahashi and Yamanaka, 2006;  Wernig, et al., ...

From MEFs to Matrigel 2: Splitting hESCs from MEFs onto Matrigel

This video demonstrates how to grow human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) on mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) feeder cells, how to passage hESCs from MEF plates to feeder cell-free Matrigel plates.


This video demonstrates how to maintain the growth of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in feeder cell-free conditions and how to continuously passage hESCs in feeder cell-free conditions. Confirmation of hESC pluripotency grown in feeder cell-free conditions by immunofluorescence microscopy is also demonstrated. Part 2 of 3.

This video demonstrates how to grow human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) on mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) feeder cells, how to passage hESCs from MEF ...

From MEFs to Matrigel 3: Passaging hESCs from Matrigel onto Matrigel

This video demonstrates how to maintain the growth of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in feeder cell-free conditions and how to continuously passage hESCs in feeder cell-free conditions. Confirmation of hESC pluripotency grown in feeder cell-free conditions by immunofluorescence microscopy is also demonstrated.

This video demonstrates how to maintain the growth of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in feeder cell-free conditions and how to continuously passage hESCs in feeder cell-free conditions. Confirmation of hESC pluripotency grown in feeder cell-free conditions by immunofluorescence microscopy is also demonstrated. Part 3 of 3.

This video demonstrates how to maintain the growth of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in feeder cell-free conditions and how to continuously passage ...

A Matrigel-Based Tube Formation Assay to Assess the Vasculogenic Activity of Tumor Cells

Over the past several decades, a tube formation assay using growth factor-reduced Matrigel has been typically employed to demonstrate the angiogenic activity of vascular endothelial cells in vitro1-5. However, recently growing evidence has shown that this assay is not limited to test vascular behavior for endothelial cells. Instead, it also has been used to test the ability of a number of tumor cells to develop a vascular phenotype6-8. This capability was consistent with their vasculogenic behavior identified in xenotransplanted animals, a process known as vasculogenic mimicry (VM)9. There is a multitude of evidence demonstrating that tumor cell-mediated VM plays a vital role in the tumor development, independent of endothelial cell angiogenesis6, 10-13. For example, tumor cells were found to participate in the blood perfused, vascular channel formation in tissue samples from melanoma and glioblastoma patients8, 10, 11. Here, we described this tubular network assay as a useful tool in evaluation of vasculogenic activity of tumor cells. We found that some tumor cell lines such as melanoma B16F1 cells, glioblastoma U87 cells, and breast cancer MDA-MB-435 cells are able to form vascular tubules; but some do not such as colon cancer HCT116 cells. Furthermore, this vascular phenotype is dependent on cell numbers plated on the Matrigel. Therefore, this assay may serve as powerful utility to screen the vascular potential of a variety of cell types including vascular cells, tumor cells as well as other cells.

A tube formation assay is used to evaluate vascular activity of tumor cells.

Over the past several decades, a tube formation assay using growth factor-reduced Matrigel has been typically employed to demonstrate the angiogenic ...

Generation of Myospheres From hESCs by Epigenetic Reprogramming

Generation of a homogeneous and abundant population of skeletal muscle cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) is a requirement for cell-based therapies and for a "disease in a dish" model of human neuromuscular diseases. Major hurdles, such as low abundance and heterogeneity of the population of interest, as well as a lack of protocols for the formation of three-dimensional contractile structures, have limited the applications of stem cells for neuromuscular disorders. We have designed a protocol that overcomes these limits by ectopic introduction of defined factors in hESCs - the muscle determination factor MyoD and SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex component BAF60C - that are able to reprogram hESCs into skeletal muscle cells. Here we describe the protocol established to generate hESC-derived myoblasts and promote their clustering into tridimensional miniaturized structures (myospheres) that functionally mimic miniaturized skeletal muscles7.

Here, we describe a protocol based on epigenetic reprogramming of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) toward generating a homogeneous population of skeletal muscle progenitors that under permissive culture conditions form three-dimensional clusters of contractile myofibers (myospheres), which recapitulate biological features of human skeletal muscles.

Generation of a homogeneous and abundant population of skeletal muscle cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) is a requirement for cell-based ...

Isolation of Mitochondria from Minimal Quantities of Mouse Skeletal Muscle for High Throughput Microplate Respiratory Measurements

Dysfunctional skeletal muscle mitochondria play a role in altered metabolism observed with aging, obesity and Type II diabetes. Mitochondrial respirometric assays from isolated mitochondrial preparations allow for the assessment of mitochondrial function, as well as determination of the mechanism(s) of action of drugs and proteins that modulate metabolism. Current isolation procedures often require large quantities of tissue to yield high quality mitochondria necessary for respirometric assays. The methods presented herein describe how high quality purified mitochondria (~ 450 &#181;g) can be isolated from minimal quantities (~75-100 mg) of mouse skeletal muscle for use in high throughput respiratory measurements. We determined that our isolation method yields 92.5&#177; 2.0% intact mitochondria by measuring citrate synthase activity spectrophotometrically. In addition, Western blot analysis in isolated mitochondria resulted in the faint expression of the cytosolic protein, GAPDH, and the robust expression of the mitochondrial protein, COXIV. The absence of a prominent GAPDH band in the isolated mitochondria is indicative of little contamination from non-mitochondrial sources during the isolation procedure. Most importantly, the measurement of O2 consumption rate with micro-plate based technology and determining the respiratory control ratio (RCR) for coupled respirometric assays shows highly coupled (RCR; &#62;6 for all assays) and functional mitochondria. In conclusion, the addition of a separate mincing step and significantly reducing motor driven homogenization speed of a previously reported method has allowed the isolation of high quality and purified mitochondria from smaller quantities of mouse skeletal muscle that results in highly coupled mitochondria that respire with high function during microplate based respirometirc assays.

Here, we present a modification of a previously reported method that allows for the isolation of high quality and purified mitochondria from smaller quantities of mouse skeletal muscle. This procedure results in highly coupled mitochondria that respire with high function during microplate based respirometirc assays.

Dysfunctional skeletal muscle mitochondria play a role in altered metabolism observed with aging, obesity and Type II diabetes. Mitochondrial ...

High-resolution Respirometry to Measure Mitochondrial Function of Intact Beta Cells in the Presence of Natural Compounds

High-resolution respirometry allows for the measurement of oxygen consumption of isolated mitochondria, cells and tissues. Beta cells play a critical role in the body by controlling blood glucose levels through insulin secretion in response to elevated glucose concentrations. Insulin secretion is controlled by glucose metabolism and mitochondrial respiration. Therefore, measuring intact beta cell respiration is essential to be able to improve beta cell function as a treatment for diabetes. Using intact 832/13 INS-1 derived beta cells we can measure the effect of increasing glucose concentration on cellular respiration. This protocol allows us to measure beta cell respiration in the presence or absence of various compounds, allowing one to determine the effect of given compounds on intact cell respiration. Here we demonstrate the effect of two naturally occurring compounds, monomeric epicatechin and curcumin, on beta cell respiration under the presence of low (2.5 mM) or high glucose (16.7 mM) conditions. This technique can be used to determine the effect of various compounds on intact beta cell respiration in the presence of differing glucose concentrations.

The goal of this protocol is to measure the effect of glucose-mediated changes to mitochondrial respiration in the presence of natural compounds on intact 832/13 beta cells using high-resolution respirometry.

High-resolution respirometry allows for the measurement of oxygen consumption of isolated mitochondria, cells and tissues. Beta cells play a critical role ...

Measuring Crop Motility and Food Passaging in Drosophila

Most animals use the gastrointestinal (GI) tract to digest food. The movement of the ingested food in the GI tract is essential for nutrient absorption. Disordered GI motility and gastric emptying cause multiple diseases and symptoms. As a powerful genetic model organism, Drosophila can be used in GI motility research. The Drosophila crop is an organ that contracts and moves food into the midgut for further digestion, functionally similar to a mammalian stomach. Presented is a protocol to study Drosophila crop motility using simple measurement tools. A method for counting crop contractions to evaluate crop motility and a method for detecting the distribution of food dyed blue between the crop and gut using a spectrophotometer to investigate the effect of the crop on food passaging is described. The method was used to detect the difference in crop motility between control and nprl2 mutant flies. This protocol is both cost-efficient and highly sensitive to crop motility.

Measuring Crop Motility and Food Passaging in Drosophila

The goal of this protocol is to measure crop contraction and quantify food distribution in the Drosophila gut.

Most animals use the gastrointestinal (GI) tract to digest food. The movement of the ingested food in the GI tract is essential for nutrient absorption. ...