Deciphering the importance of three key media components in human embryonic stem cell cultures

Development of a serum free, feeder-free (SFFF) culture platform for human embryonic stem cells (hESC) will be important for the expansion of hESC for future cell therapy applications. However, currently, culture of hESC consists of a combination of basal media, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), serum replacer (SR) and conditioned media (CM) from feeders, and it is unclear which components of the mixture are absolutely critical in the maintenance of hESC. To evaluate the relative contributions of these media components in the development of SFFF culture, each was systematically eliminated and pluripotency assayed by dual embryonic stem cell markers, Oct-4 and TRA-1-60. We concluded that SR was the most critical component in the platform, followed by bFGF and CM produced by feeders, where down-regulation of Oct-4 occurred after 2, 5 and 5 passages, respectively, upon their withdrawal from the complete media.