Protocols for Using Human Fibroblasts Expressing Human bFGF as Feeder Cells for iPSCs

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1. Thaw one vial of irradiated feeder cells by swirling gently in 37oC water bath until all of the contents are thawed. One vial of 2×10^6 cells is sufficient to prepare two10-cm dishes, or two 6-well or 12-well plates (about 3-4×10^4/cm2).
2. Spray vial with 70% ethanol and wipe dry before placing in tissue culture hood.
3. Gently add 1 ml prewarmed feeder cell medium (alphaMEM or DMEM/F12 with 10% FBS), mix with contents of cryovial and transfer into 15-ml conical tube containing 4 ml prewarmed feeder cell medium.
4. Centrifuge the cells at 200g at room temperature for 5 min and discard the supernatant.
5. Resuspend the feeder cells in 12 ml feeder cell medium. If using a 6-well plate: add 1 ml of feeder cell suspension to each well of the 6-well plate containing 1 ml fresh feeder cell media per well. If using a 10-cm tissue culture dish: add 6 ml of feeder cell suspension to 10-cm tissue culture dish containing 6 ml fresh feeder cell media. If using a 12-well plate: add 0.5 ml feeder cell suspension to each well of 12-well plate containing 1 ml fresh feeder cell media per well. Gently shake the dish left/right and up/down 10-20 times without swirling the plate to evenly distribute the cells across the plate.
6. Incubate the cells in 37 1C, 5% CO2, overnight.
CRITICAL STEP When moving the feeder cell plates from the tissue culture hood to incubator, do not swirl the medium, as this tends to cause the cells to accumulate in the center. Immediately after placing the plates in the incubator, slide the plates forward and backward (2–3 cm) two times, then left to right (2–3 cm) two times to ensure equal distribution of the cells. Use within 5–7 days.
7. Split stem cells (~2.5 x 10^5 to 5 x 10^5 cells, or ~10% confluence) into plate with feeder cells: aspirate medium from ESC or iPSC, wash with PBS and add 0.5 ml of 0.05% trypsin. Incubate at 37oC, 5% CO2, for 5 min.
8. Inactivate trypsin with 3 ml stem cell medium (e.g. DMEM + 20% knockout serum replacement), and collect cell clumps in 15-ml conical tube avoiding making single cell suspension because ESC tends to die in single cell form.
9. Centrifuge at 200g at room temperature for 4 min.
10. Aspirate feeder medium from feeder plates (cells incubated in Step 6), rinse with one ml of stem cell medium and add 5 ml of stem cell medium and return to incubator.
11. Aspirate and discard supernatant from the conical tube in Step 8, resuspend cells in 5 ml stem cell medium, gently dispense the cell pellet three times, add to feeder cell wells or dishes.
12. Incubate stem cells grown on feeder cells at 37oC, 5% CO2, for 48 h.
13. Aspirate medium and replace with stem cell medium every day; if iPSC colony number is low, replace medium every two days.

Tags: bFGF, DMEM/F12, FAQ, feeder cells, forum, human fibroblasts, iPS cells, iPS protocol, iPSCs, New Product of the week, protocol, stem cells

FAQ About Feeder Cells for Stem Cells –Part One

The cost of preparing feeder cells for induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) or embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is mainly due to 1. serum and media, 2. labor for growing and treating cells, and 3. expenses for freezing media and vials. Ready-to-use feeder cells saves one important labor-intensive step of iPSC generation, it should be an important help for iPSC and stem cell researchers. We know that most of our colleagues are tired of preparing fresh early passages of MEFs and treating them with expensive mitomycin C or finding an irradiator to pre-treat the MEFs. A lot of iPSC researchers lost iPS stem cells due to the lack of patience in handling MEF feeders. The offering of Allele’s feeder cell product line is really an easy solution and convenience to iPSC researchers.

Question 1: There are companies offering drug-resistant feeder cells such as MEF cells expressing neo-, puro-, or hygromycin-resistance genes. Is it important to have such drug-resistance genes when choosing feeder cells?

Adding drug resistant markers to these cells should not be necessary because iPSCs grown on feeder cells are usually not cultured in antibiotics-containing medium. The feeder cells will not be selected by drug resistance nor will they contaminate iPS cells since they can not propagate after irradiation. However, for those who do need to use drug selection for any reason, we will provide drug-resistant feeder cells upon request.

Question 2: There are publications showing the use of cells lines as feeder cells instead of primary fibroblasts, e.g. SL10, MRC-5, STO. Are there any advantages of using these cell lines?

Not really. Handling primary cells requires certain amount of experience and may be tedious; using cell lines, on the other hand, would be easier for preparing feeder cells. We provide feeder cells from immortalized early passage human foreskin fibroblasts at prices often lower than those from cell lines.

Question 3: Should I choose fluorescent protein expressing feeder cells for easy separation from iPSCs?

You do not need to include fluorescent protein in feeder cells, as feeder cells are quite different in morphology from iPS cells or ES cells. In fact, many labs use iPS factors that are co-expressed with fluorescent markers, in which cases feeder cell expressed fluorescent proteins will confuse the readout.

Question 4: What are the main advantages of using bFGF-expressing feeder cells?

Our bFGF-feeder cells not only eliminate the needs for added recombinant bFGF to stem cell cultures, but also form very nice cell lawn to serve iPSC colony formation because of their strictly controlled passage and growth conditions. We have used these cells without coating dishes with gelatin and obtained nice iPSC colonies.

Preview: Next Part of FAQ on Feeder Cells: choosing mouse or human fibroblasts, selecting iPSC colonies…

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Tags: bFGF, biology FAQ, biology forum, biotech enewsletter, ES cells, ESC, ESCs, feeder cells, human fibroblasts, iPS cells, iPSC, iPSCs, irradiation, MEF, MEFs, mitomycin C, stem cell culture