Lower Cost Stem Cell Culturing
April 17, 2018 | Terry Sharrer
A research collaboration headed at Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell Material Science has developed a stem cell culture that supports expansion while retarding differentiation but at five to ten times lower cost than current methods. They call this method “AKIT.” “The ‘AKIT’ culture [uses] three chemical compounds: 1–azakenpaullone (AK), ID-8 (I), and tacrolimus (T). 1–azakenpaullone supported hPSC self-renewal, but also induced their differentiation into other cells. To turn off the differentiation, the team added ID-8. This compound, however, also leads to partial cell growth arrest, so a third compound, tacrolimus, was finally added to counter this effect.” MORE
Image Credit: Kyoto University Institute for Integrated Cell Material Science