Methods of culturing embryonic stem cells and controlled differentiation
AssigneeES Cell International PTE Ltd.
InventorMartin Frederick Pera
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention provides a preparation of undifferentiated embryonic stem (ES) cells sustainable for a prolonged period in an undifferentiated state which will undergo stem cell renewal or somatic differentiation. Preferably the cells are capable of somatic differentiation in vitro and are inclined to differentiate away from an extraembryonic lineage. The present invention also provides method of culturing embryonic stem (ES) cells to improve stem cell maintenance and persistence in culture. The method also provides a culture of ES cells prepared by the method as well as differentiated cells derived from the embryonic cells resulting from directed differentiation procedures provided by the present invention.
Claims19
A method of producing a human neural progenitor cell from a human ES cell, said method comprising:
- obtaining a source of an undifferentiated human ES cell;
- and
- culturing the ES cell in the presence of an antagonist of a BMP mediated default pathway of extra embryonic endoderm differentiation to differentiate the ES cell to a progenitor cell, wherein said progenitor cell lacks at least one marker of said undifferentiated ES cell;
- and
- culturing the progenitor cell in a neural progenitor cell culture medium to obtain a neural progenitor cell.
A method of producing a human progenitor cell from a human ES cell, said method comprising:
- obtaining a source of an undifferentiated human ES cell;
- and
- culturing the ES cell in the presence of an antagonist of a BMP mediated default pathway of extra embryonic endoderm differentiation under conditions sufficient to differentiate the ES cell to a progenitor cell, wherein said progenitor cell lacks at least one marker of said undifferentiated ES cell, lacks a marker of neuroectoderm, and is capable of differentiating into a neural progenitor cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.