How to detect and preserve human stem cells in the lab

Human stem cells that are capable of becoming any other kind of cell in the body have previously only been acquired and cultivated with difficulty. Scientists at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in the Helmholtz Association have now presented details of a method to detect such pluripotent cells in a cell culture and preserve them in the laboratory.

The researchers had already presented their methodological principles in late 2014 in the scientific journal Nature (doi: 10.1038/nature13804). At that time, they had located a sequence named HERVH, which is active in the genetic material of naive stem cells. Using a reporter, which they had linked to a fluorescent protein, the researchers were able to maintain HERVH in an active state and simultaneously detect the cells that had retained pluripotency.

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How to detect and preserve human stem cells in the lab 

Source: EurekAlert! Science News