DAS graphene-based feeder-free culture system for human induced pluripotent stem cells

Graphene has been selected as a candidate for synthetic feeder-free culture substrate guiding human/mouse multipotent stem cell lineage specification, and culturing pluripotent stem cells in a number of studies. However, conventional graphene is not an ideal biomaterial to maintain the pluripotency of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) including hESCs/hiPSCs due to its intrinsic hydrophobicity and relatively flat surface topography. Here, we applied morphology-controlled nanocrystalline graphene (NG) coating onto the culture substrates via diffusion-associated synthesis (DAS) process and cultivated hPSCs. It is found that enhanced hydrophilicity and controlled surface roughness of DAS-NG enabled tight focal adhesion of hPSCs onto the DAS-NG coated culture substrate and retained pluripotency for over 2 weeks. It is also found hPSCs grown on DAS-NG shared comparable global gene expression profile with hPSCs grown on mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF). Importantly, the similarities in cell adhesion gene expression between hPSCs grown on DAS-NG and hPSCs on MEF suggest DAS-NG may provide comparable physical cues with MEF for sustaining pluripotency. Taken together, our findings show a new reliable method for culturing hPSCs in feeder-free condition using DAS-graphene.

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Lee H, Nam D, Choi JK, Araúzo-Bravo MJ, Kwon SY, Zaehres H, Lee T, Park CY, Kang HW, Schöler HR, Kim JB