I am currently using monolayer culture for differentiation of blood cells. I am looking at embryoid bodies and was wondering if there is a benefit to this method and also challenges with the method.
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Directed Differentiation of Pluripotent Stem Cells
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Company: Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.
Job Title: Director of Research and Development
Answer
Which cell types are you starting with as monolayer is an important consideration for differentiation.
If pluripotent stem cells (PSC)are started as monolayer and driving the differentiation towards Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), starting as adherent monolayer of PSC and harvesting HSC as suspension culture in the same dish is an ideal set up.
In contrast, if HSC are plated for differentiation towards blood lineages, generally HSC are floating cells and the differentiated blood lineages are adherent cell types.
In either case embryoid body generation can be bypassed and does not confer any special advantage.
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