Well-defined differentiation of hESC-derived hemangioblasts by embryoid body formation without enzymatic treatment.

Human hemangioblasts exist only during the early embryonic developmental stage thereby limiting the adult cellular source from which to obtain such cells for study. To overcome this, hemangioblast studies have focused on utilizing human embryonic stem cell (hESC) derivatives but current methods are cell-line dependent. Single cell dissociation of a hESC colony quickly led to cell death in most hESC lines due to enzyme treatment which, in turn, reduced induction potential and hemangioblast differentiation efficiency. Therefore, we sought to effectively improve the process of cell dissociation that is adaptable to various hESC lines and increase the initial induction potential of embryoid body (hEB). As a result, we determined an effective cell dissociation method through a comparison study involving various reagents which demonstrated successful dissociation regardless of cell line and enhanced hemangioblast differentiation efficiency.