Can I culture HESCs without feeder cell layer?

[pguo]

Hi,friends,

I have been culturing human embryonic stem cell lines H1 and H9, which were purchased from national stem cell center. I co-culture the cell line with MEF according to the protocol ( http://www.e-biotek.com/ebiotek_010.htm ). I wonder if I can culture them without the feeder cell layer.

You are very appreciated if you can let me know the protocol, or share me your experience.

Thank you

[biofrog]

I recently came across a press release for a company called Glycosan BioSystems http://www.glycosan.com where they claimed to have an animal-free matrix that one could culture stem cells in. I'm not sure if they've tried hESC's though. I haven't used them personally (I still use a feeder cell layer), but you might try contacting them. I did notice on their site that they've had success with CD34+ cells. Again, I'm not sure if these cells proliferated or if they were just maintained.

Best of luck!