Invitrogen Corporation
1600 Faraday Avenue
Carlsbad, CA, 92008
Website: http://www.invitrogen.com
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Engineered Stem Cell Line
This engineered stem cell line allows scientists to monitor the pluripotency of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) without sacrificing those cells. A pluripotent stem cell is one that has the ability to develop, or differentiate, into cells of all the three major lineages: endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm. The BG01v/hOG line is obtained by engineering the BG01v hESC line with the Oct-4 promoter, a known pluripotency marker, coupled with a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter. The engineered line glows green when the cells are in a pluripotent state, but the cells lose their fluorescence as they start to differentiate. This allows scientists to track pluripotency without having to sacrifice the cells as they currently have to do by analyzing gene or
protein expression. In addition, the cells can be used as a reporter of the cell culture’s response to external stimuli, including media composition and stress. This offers a control for monitoring whether or not culture conditions are adequate for keeping the hESCs in an undifferentiated state.
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