Compounds for Stem Cell Proliferation & Renewal: Products

Maintaining stem cells in an undifferentiated state while in culture is important to ensure consistency and reproducibility among experiments. Traditionally, embryonic stem cells have been grown in culture using mouse embryonic fibroblasts as a feeder layer or using defined culture media. For some applications, the addition of small molecules to culture conditions can increase the proliferative capacity of pluripotent stem cells. For instance, Wnt signaling is known to promote pluripotent stem cell self-renewal, and the Wnt pathway can be activated by BIO, a small molecule that selectively inhibits GSK-3 beta. Similarly, induced pluripotent stem cell self-renewal can be enhanced in vitro by a small molecule that inhibits ALK5, thereby preventing Smad2 phosphorylation and TGF-beta signal transduction. Tocris provides a complete range of bioactive small molecules for the maintenance of self-renewal and proliferation of multiple stem cell types including embryonic, induced pluripotent, neural, and adult stem cells.