Wagner Katherine E, Vemuri Mohan C
Primary and Stem Cell Systems, Invitrogen Corporation, Grand Island, NY, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2010;584:109-19. doi: 10.1007/978-1-60761-369-5_6.
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.
人类胚胎干细胞（hESCs）是源自人类囊胚内细胞团的多能干细胞。hESCs已成为研究人类疾病和健康生物体基因功能的重要资源。hESCs在实验室中的使用速率呈指数级增长，随之而来的是对无动物源hESCs的需求也在增加。无动物源等级的hESCs，即除人类来源的成分外未接触任何动物衍生成分的细胞，对于人类最终的药物治疗、细胞治疗和疾病治疗至关重要。然而，无动物源hESC培养环境的研究仍在不断推进。用细胞外基质蛋白替代鼠源饲养层推动了相关研究，本章将介绍在无血清和无饲养层的hESC培养环境方面取得的一些进展。
