Chetty S, Pagliuca FW, Honore C, Kweudjeu A, Rezania A, Melton DA. A simple tool to improve pluripotent stem cell differentiation. Nat Methods. 2013 Jun; 10(6):553-6.

Citation

Chetty S, Pagliuca FW, Honore C, Kweudjeu A, Rezania A, Melton DA. 2013. A simple tool to improve pluripotent stem cell differentiation. Nature methods. 10(6):553-6. Pubmed: 23584186 DOI:10.1038/nmeth.2442

Abstract

We describe a method to help overcome restrictions on the differentiation propensities of human pluripotent stem cells. Culturing pluripotent stem cells in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) activates the retinoblastoma protein, increases the proportion of cells in the early G1 phase of the cell cycle and, in more than 25 embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell lines, improves directed differentiation into multiple lineages. DMSO treatment also improves differentiation into terminal cell types in several cell lines.

Related Faculty

Douglas Melton, Ph.D.

Doug Melton is pursuing a cure for type 1 diabetes. His lab studies the developmental biology of the pancreas, using that information to grow and develop pancreatic cells (islets of Langerhans). In parallel, they investigate ways to protect beta cells from autoimmune attack.