Unparalleled ‘Ground State’ Maintenance of Authentic Mouse Embryonic Stem (ES) Cells

Serum-free iSTEM captures germline competent mouse ES cells in their ground state by blocking the inductive pathways of differentiation with selective small molecule inhibitors. Using iSTEM, ground state mouse ES cells can be efficiently maintained and propagated at ≥99% purity in feeder-free, cytokine-free culture conditions.

Mouse ES cells grown in iSTEM

Ground State Self-Renewal

Eliminating the need for serum, feeders and the cytokine LIF, three small molecule inhibitors acting on the ERK pathway and on glycogen synthase kinase-3 enable pure ground state self-renewal of murine embryonic stem cells by preventing commitment/ differentiation and simultaneously aid with clonal level survival and enhance cellular growth capacity.

iSTEM is ideally suited for studying the molecular basis of pluripotency due to its demonstrated ability to eliminate the background stimulatory signalling pathway noise associated with traditional ES cell culture.

Other applications of iSTEM include:

• Study of basic developmental biology and embryology owing to the truly naïve state of the cells
• Derivation of ES cell lines from previously non-permissive mouse strains¹