Automated maintenance of embryonic stem cell cultures

Abstract

Embryonic stem cell (ESC) technology provides attractive perspectives for generating unlimited numbers of somatic cells for disease modeling and compound screening. A key prerequisite for these industrial applications are standardized and automated systems suitable for stem cell processing. Here we demonstrate that mouse and human ESC propagated by automated culture maintain their mean specific growth rates, their capacity for multigermlayer differentiation, and the expression of the pluripotency-associated markers SSEA-1/Oct-4 and Tra-1-60/ Tra-1-81/Oct-4, respectively. The feasibility of ESC culture automation may greatly facilitate the use of this versatile cell source for a variety of biomedical applications.

Oxygen-Controlled Automated Neural Differentiation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

“…Barrier isolators and cGMP conditions have been adapted for pharmaceutical and biotechnological processing avoiding crosscontamination and operator exposure [26]. A number of studies have previously demonstrated that commercially available automation platforms can be used to develop robust stem cell production processes based on two dimensional cell culture systems [12,[23][24][25][26][27][28]. Automated platforms enable accurate and repeatable control of plate handling and liquid handling velocities and forces.…”

“…A number of reports have used commercially available automation platforms for the maintenance of stem cells under 2D culture conditions [12,[23][24][25][26][27][28]. By eliminating reliance upon highly skilled operators these systems can enhance the reproducibility of stem cell bioprocesses.…”

Les cellules souches embryonnaires et la pharmacologie

“…Cela implique d'éviter les systèmes de coculture, de travailler en milieu défini et avec des techniques de dissociation adaptées, tout en veillant à ne pas induire d'instabilité génétique [28]. Ces mêmes protocoles devront être compatibles avec un changement d'échelle, ce qui nécessite une automatisation des processus par des plates-formes robotiques [29] ou le recours à des bioréacteurs [30,31] (➜). Les protocoles de différenciation devront également être optimisés, de manière à tendre vers une population pure, homogène et la plus mature possible, les populations intermé-diaires et terminales devant être caractérisées de manière approfondie.…”

Inverting microwell array chip for the cultivation of human induced pluripotent stem cells with controlled aggregate size and geometrical arrangement

“…6 In these fields, the maintenance of homogeneous cell populations and the reproducible control of differentiation are important issues, because behavior of hiPS cells is severely affected by the surrounding microenvironment, which includes the size and shape of the cellular aggregates during passage and differentiation, the geometrical arrangement of the adhered cellular aggregates (i.e., colonies), the timing of medium change as well as addition of differentiation factors, and composition of the extracellular matrix. 7,8 The development of processes, ideally involving programmed perfusion [9][10][11] and automated cultivation, [12][13][14] to control the culture microenvironment would overcome these problems and allow this approach to be applied to industrial applications.…”