Serum-free and feeder-free culture expansion of human embryonic stem cells.

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of human blastocysts. hESCs have become a great asset to studying human diseases and genetic functions of healthy organisms. The rate at which hESCs are being used in laboratories is exponentially increasing, and with that, the need for xeno-free hESCs is also increasing. Xeno-free grade hESCs, cells that have not come into contact with any animal-derived components except those of human origin, are critical for eventual drug therapy, cell therapy, and disease treatment in humans. However, advances toward a xeno-free hESC environment are still being developed. Replacement of murine feeder layers with extracellular matrix proteins has advanced the research, and some advances toward a serum-free and feeder-free environment for hESCs are described in this chapter.