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Updated: Mar 8, 2026

Preparation of Mouse Embryonic Fibroblast Cells Suitable for Culturing Human Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Published on: June 21, 2012
Activin A in combination with ERK1/2 MAPK pathway inhibition sustains propagation of mouse embryonic stem cells
Yuhei Ashida1, May Nakajima-Koyama1,2, Akira Hirota1
1Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan.
Abstract:
The Activin/Nodal/TGF-β signaling pathway plays a major role in maintaining mouse epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs). The EpiSC-maintaining medium, which contains Activin A and bFGF, induces differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) to EpiSCs. Here, we show that Activin A also has an ability to efficiently propagate ESCs without differentiation to EpiSCs when combined with a MEK inhibitor PD0325901. ESCs cultured in Activin+PD retained high-level expression of naive pluripotency-related transcription factors. Genomewide analysis showed that the gene expression profile of ESCs cultured in Activin+PD resembles that of ESCs cultured in 2i. ESCs cultured in Activin+PD also showed features common to the naive pluripotency of ESCs, including the preferential usage of the Oct4 distal enhancer and the self-renewal response to Wnt pathway activation. Our finding shows a role of Activin/Nodal/TGF-β signaling in stabilizing self-renewal gene regulatory networks in ESCs.
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