Isolation, Culture And Identification Of Human Embryonic Germ Cells

Human blastocyst-derived and human primordial germ cell-derived pluripotent cells are capable of unlimited , undifferentiated proliferation in vitro , and maintain the developmental pluiipotency .Human pluripotent stein cells , with their potemal to differentiate into specific cell types in culture, would be invaluable for human developmental biology, drug discoveiy and transplantation medicine.Primordial germ cells derived from gonadal ridges and mesenteries of 30-70-day post menopause human ernbiyos, when cultured on mouse MEF or STO fibroblast feeder layers in presence of hrLW , hrbFGF, hrSCF, and forskolin could survive and give rise to multicellular colonies, resembLing mouse ES-like colonies .After being continuously passaged , the cultured cells are alkaline phosphatase-positivekaiyotypically normal and they express cell surface spectiflc inazkers (SSEA-l, SSEA-3, SSEA4) .The cultured cells can differentiate into epithelial like cells~ caidiac cells and neuron like cells and immunohistochemical analysis of EB collected from these cultures reveals a wide variety of epithelial cells derived from ectoderm.All evidences suggest these cells are pluripotent.