Half of the human genome is composed of repeated DNA, and some types are mobile within our genome (transposons and retrotransposons). Despite their abundance, only a small fraction of them are currently active in our genome (Long Interspersed Element-1 (LINE-1), Alu, and SVA elements). LINE-1 or L1 ...

More than 600 human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines have been reported today at the human European Embryonic Stem Cell Registry (http://www.hescreg.eu/). Despite these high numbers, there are currently no general protocols for derivation, culture, and characterization of hESC. Moreo ...

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are self-renewing, pluripotent cells derived from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, early-stage embryos, or blastomeres. hESCs can be propagated indefinitely in an undifferentiated state in vitro and have the ability to differentiate into all cell ...

This chapter describes the principles for derivation and maintenance of human embryonic stem cells. Detailed protocols are outlined and researchers who are generally skilled in mammalian cell culture should be able to repeat the processes successfully. Further, the protocols are i ...

In this chapter, we describe the derivation and characterization of nine hIn this chapter, we describe the derivation and characterization of nine human embryonic stem cells (hESC) (VAL-3 to -11B) from different developmental embryo stages (inner cell mass from a blastocyst, morula, and b ...

In 1998, a development occurred in stem cell biology with the first report of the derivation of a human embryonic stem cell (hESC) line. Since then a number of techniques have been used to derive and characterise hESCs. Here, we describe the derivation methods used by our laboratory for isolation of the I ...

The identification and quantitative measurements of proteins in human embryonic stem cells (hESC) is a fast growing interdisciplinary area with an enormous impact on understanding the biology of hESC and the mechanism controlling self-renewal and differentiation. Using a quant ...

Although since 1998 more than 1,200 different hESC lines have been established worldwide, there is still a recognized interest in the establishment of new lines of hESC, particularly from HLA types and ethnic groups underrepresented among the currently available lines. The methodology ...

The analysis of DNA-methylation on a genome-wide scale by next-generation sequencing techniques is an invaluable tool towards the understanding of the epigenetic basis of cellular differentiation. Methylated DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) is an immunocapturing method u ...

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) followed by microarray-based (ChIP-Chip) or next-generation sequencing-based (ChIP-Seq) analysis has been established as a powerful and widely used method to investigate DNA–protein interactions relative to a genomic location in vi ...

During culture adaptation, human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) tend to acquire chromosomal aberrations. Generally, stem cell lines are screened for large-scale chromosomal changes using low resolution karyotype analysis. Recent stud ...

Neural differentiation of human embryonic (ES) and induced pluripotent (iPS) stem cell lines has been used for research in early human development, drug discovery, and cell replacement therapies. It is critical to establish generic differentiation protocols to compare the neural sp ...

The differentiation of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) towards functional neurons particularly hold great potential for the cell-based replacement therapy in neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we describe a stepwise dif ...

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are unique cells, which have the ability to differentiate into all cell types that comprise the adult organism. Furthermore, ESCs can infinitely self-renew under optimized conditions. These features place human ESCs (hESCs) in a position where these cells can be ...

Human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells (hESCs and hiPSCs) offer a platform technology with the potential for developmental biology and cell-based therapy. Therefore, robust and cost-effective ways for mass production of them is necessary. Here, we have presented a protoc ...

Experimental manipulation of hESCs has been hampered by their fragility and susceptibility to apoptosis when dissociated into single cells. The OxF lines are particularly robust and may be successfully passaged as single cells, with the inclusion of ROCK inhibitor in the medium. The pro ...

Human embryonic stem cells (HESCs) are of great interest in biology and medicine due to their ability to grow indefinitely in culture while maintaining their ability to differentiate into all different cell types in the human body. In addition, HESCs can be used for better understanding the key d ...

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are an invaluable cell source to study human embryogenesis and development and for exploring the nature of human diseases. Moreover, hESCs can serve as an unlimited source of cells for cell therapy. The first hESC lines were derived from frozen blastocyst-s ...

Gene silencing approaches afford investigators the ability to gain important insight into the normal functional requirements of specific epidermal proteins and promise to yield a powerful therapeutic means to dampen the level of proteins that are mutated or frequently overexpre ...

Detection of in vitro protein–DNA interaction is one of many investigational analyses for transcription factor regulation of gene promoters. The electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) has proven widely popular in this respect by integrating individual techniques (prot ...