Medium for growing human embryonic stem cells

Patent Number: 7,297,539

One of the restrictions of tissue culture in general has been the need for fetal calf serum. No one has yet figured out what is the "magical mixture" of proteins and growth factors that allows fetal calf serum its properties to all for such effective growth of cells outside of the body. In fact, some other groups use horse serum, or cord blood serum, an approach with is patented by the Indian biotech powerhouse Reliance Life Sciences.

In the current patent a tissue culture media is described which alleviates the need for fetal calf serum, as well as for feeder layers in the culture of embryonic stem cells.

The patent actually covers a "method of proliferating ES cells", in which the embryonic stem cells are grown in the presence of a tissue culture media that contains one member of the fibroblast growth factor family at a concentration of at least 40 ng/mL.

The patent also covers the addition of: nucleotides, insulin, transferrin, mercaptoethanol, Fibroblast Growth Factor-2, kit-ligand (stem cell factor), Flt3 ligand,extracellular matrix components such as reconstituted basement membrane from Engelbreth-Holm-Swarm tumor cells, laminin, fibronectin, proteoglycan, or entactin.

View this patent on the USPTO website.