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Embryonic Stem Cells

Embryonic Stem Cells

Embryonic stem (ES) cells were first discovered in mice in 1981 by Martin Evans. In 1998, James Thomson identified a method to isolate embryonic stem cells from humans. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are obtained from 3-5 day old embryos that remain unused after an in vitro fertilization procedure.
ES cells are grown in a culture medium where they can divide indefinitely, creating ES cell lines. Under certain conditions, ES cells can differentiate, either spontaneously into a variety of...

Embryonic Stem Cells

Embryonic Stem Cells

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are undifferentiated pluripotent cells, meaning they can produce any cell type in the body. This gives them tremendous potential in science and medicine since they can generate specific cell types for use in research or to replace body cells lost due to damage or disease.

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that divide and produce different cell types. Ordinarily, cells that have differentiated into a specific cell type are terminally differentiated; however, scientists have found a way to reprogram these mature cells so that they dedifferentiate and return to an unspecialized, proliferative state. These cells are pluripotent like embryonic stem cells—able to produce all cell types—and are called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
Somatic cells are...

Maintenance of the ES Cell State

Maintenance of the ES Cell State

The cells of the blastocyst inner cell mass only remain pluripotent for a short time. This state of pluripotency and self-renewal can be maintained in embryonic stem (ES) cell culture by adding specific chemicals or growth factors to ensure the cells can continue dividing and later differentiate into different cell types. In some cases, the cells are grown on a feeder layer of differentiated cells, which provides the growth factors and extracellular matrix components necessary for stem cell...

Stem Cell Culture

Stem Cell Culture

Stem cell research aims to find ways to use stem cells to regenerate and repair cellular damage. Over time, most adult cells undergo the wear and tear of aging and lose their ability to divide and repair themselves. Stem cells do not display a particular morphology or function. Adult stem cells, which exist as a small subset of cells in most tissues, keep dividing and can differentiate into a number of specialized cells generally formed by that tissue. These cells enable the body to renew and...

Zygotic Development And Stem Cell Formation

Zygotic Development And Stem Cell Formation

The development of all multicellular organisms starts with the fusion of haploid cells called sperm and egg to form a diploid zygote. A zygote is a totipotent cell that can develop into a complete organism. The zygote undergoes cell division or cleavage to form an 8-cell mass. Until this stage, the cells are spherical, loosely attached, and remain totipotent. Totipotent cells are capable of developing both the embryonic and the extraembryonic tissues. However, as they continue to divide, they...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Developmental Toxicity Assay Based on Real-Time Monitoring of Fibroblast Growth Factor Signal Disruption in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Developmental Toxicity Assay Based on Real-Time Monitoring of Fibroblast Growth Factor Signal Disruption in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Published on: October 10, 2025

Human embryonic stem cells and genomic instability.

Nathalie Lefort¹, Anselme L Perrier, Yacine Laâbi

¹Institute for Stem cell Therapy and Exploration of Monogenic diseases, Desbruères, 91030 Evry cedex, France. nlefort@istem.fr

Regenerative Medicine

|November 12, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are valuable for medicine and research. However, hESCs can acquire genomic abnormalities during culture, necessitating high-resolution monitoring for safe clinical use.

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Last Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Developmental Toxicity Assay Based on Real-Time Monitoring of Fibroblast Growth Factor Signal Disruption in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

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Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Based Developmental Toxicity Assays for Chemical Safety Screening and Systems Biology Data Generation

Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Based Developmental Toxicity Assays for Chemical Safety Screening and Systems Biology Data Generation

Published on: June 17, 2015

Area of Science:

Stem cell biology
Genomics
Regenerative medicine

Background:

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) possess unique properties valuable for regenerative medicine, disease modeling, and drug discovery.
Genomic integrity is crucial for the safe research and therapeutic application of hESCs.
Previous studies identified large genomic alterations in cultured hESCs using conventional methods.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the genomic stability of cultured human pluripotent stem cells.
To highlight the occurrence of smaller, nonrandom genomic alterations in hESCs.
To emphasize the need for advanced monitoring of hESC genomic integrity.

Main Methods:

Utilized sensitive karyotyping methods to detect genomic alterations.
Analyzed genomic alterations in cultured human embryonic stem cells.
Compared findings with conventional karyotypic analyses.

Main Results:

Recent studies reveal hESCs acquire focal genomic abnormalities in the megabase-sized range during culture.
These small genomic alterations were found to be nonrandom.
Sensitive methods detected alterations missed by conventional karyotyping.

Conclusions:

Cultured hESCs are prone to accumulating specific genomic abnormalities.
High-resolution monitoring of human pluripotent stem cell lines is essential.
This monitoring is particularly critical for hESCs intended for clinical applications.