Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on January 29, 2004
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Human Reproduction, Vol. 19, No. 3, 676-684,
March 2004
© 2004 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology
Establishment of human embryonic stem cell lines from frozen–thawed blastocysts using STO cell feeder layers
1 Maria Infertility Hospital Medical Institute/Maria Biotech, Seoul 130-812, 2 Department of Animal Sciences, Kon-Kuk University, Seoul 143-701 and 3 Maria Infertility Hospital, Seoul 130-812, Korea
4 To whom correspondence should be addressed at Maria Infertility Hospital Medical Institute, 103-11, Sinseol-dong,Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 130-812 Korea. e-mail: eykim{at}mariababy.com or sppark{at}mariababy.com
BACKGROUND: Recently, human embryonic stem (hES) cells have become very important resources for basic research on cell replacement therapy and other medical applications. The purpose of this study was to test whether pluripotent hES cell lines could be successfully derived from frozen–thawed embryos that were destined to be discarded after 5 years in a routine human IVF-embryo transfer programme and whether an STO cell feeder layer can be used for the culture of hES cells. METHODS: Donated frozen embryos (blastocysts or pronuclear) were thawed, and recovered or in vitro developed blastocysts were immunosurgically treated. All inner cell masses were cultured continuously on an STO cell feeder layer and then presumed hES cell colonies were characterized. RESULTS: Seven and two cell lines were established from frozen–thawed blastocysts (7/20, 35.0%) and pronuclear stage embryos (2/20, 10.0%), respectively. The doubling time of hES cells on the immortal STO cell feeder layer was 
36 h, similar to that of cells grown using fresh mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) feeder conditions. Subcultured hES cell colonies showed strong positive immunostaining for alkaline phosphatase, stage-specific embryonic antigen-4 (SSEA-4) and tumour rejection antigen 1-60 (TRA1-60) cell surface markers. Also, the hES colonies retained normal karyotypes and Oct-4 expression in prolonged subculture. When in vitro differentiation of hES cells was induced by retinoic acid, three embryonic germ layer cells were identified by RT–PCR or indirect immunocytochemistry. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that establishment of hES cells from frozen–thawed blastocysts minimizes the ethical problem associated with the use of human embryos in research and that the STO cell feeder layer can be used for the culture of hES cells.
Key words: embryonic stem cells/frozen–thawed human blastocysts/inner cell mass/in vitro differentiation /STO cell
S.-P.Park and E.Y.Kim contributed equally to this work
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