Human foreskin fibroblasts for culturing ES cells

Patent Number: 7,267,981

Human embryonic stem cells were classically grown on mouse feeder layers. Unfortunately these cells can not be clinically used since numerous adventitious viruses and infectious agents exist that theoretically can infect humans.

The current patent teaches the use of human foreskin fibroblasts as feeder layers for growing embryonic stem cells. Foreskin fibroblasts are conventionally used for treatment of burn injuries since they can be expanded greatly.

Two independent claims of the patent are:

1. A method of maintaining embryonic stem cells in an undifferentiated state comprising co-culturing the embryonic stem cells with a human foreskin fibroblast feeder cell line.

2. A cell culture comprising: (i) embryonic stem cells; and (ii) human foreskin fibroblast cells capable of maintaining said embryonic stem cells in an undifferentiated state.

This patent is may play a critical role in companies attempting to commericialize ES cell approaches. What is more interesting however is whether these types of feeder layers can be used to maintain pluripotency of other stem cell types such as the pluripotent stem cells derived from adult tissue, or the amniotic fluid stem cell.

View this patent on the USPTO website.