Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts (MEF) are used to support the growth of mouse and human pluripotent stem cells [1]. MEF not only provide a substrate for pluripotent stem cells to grow on, but also secrete critical growth factors to maintain stem cell pluripotency. MEF are isolated from mouse embryos and used at early passages [2]. To serve as feeder cells, MEF must be treated with mitomycin C or by irradiation to prevent cell proliferation. The treated cells can also be used to generate conditioned medium for feeder-free culture of pluripotent stem cells.
MEF (Cat. No. M7570) from ScienCell Research Laboratories are isolated from E13 embryos of CF1 mice. These cells are cryopreserved at passage 0 and delivered frozen. Each vial contains 1 x 10^6 cells in 1 ml volume. MEF are characterized by immunofluorescence with antibodies specific to fibronectin. MEF are negative for mycoplasma, bacteria, yeast and fungi. They are guaranteed to further culture over 5 population doublings at the conditions provided by ScienCell Research Laboratories.
Recommended Medium It is recommended to use DMEM (Cat. No. 09221) containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS, Cat.No.0010, 0025, 0500) for the culturing of MEF cells in vitro.
Product Use MEF are used as feeder layer in mouse and human pluripotent stem cell culture. They are for research use only. They are not approved for human or animal use, or for application in in vitro diagnostic procedures.
Storage Directly and immediately transfer cells from dry ice to liquid nitrogen upon receiving and keep the cells in liquid nitrogen until cell culture is needed for experiments.
Shipping Dry ice.
Reference
[1] Bradley A. (1987) “Production and analysis of chimaeras.” In Robertson EJ, Teratocarcinomas and Embryonic Stem Cells: A Practical Approach (pp 113-51). Oxford: IRL Press. [2] Nagy A, Gertsenstein M, Vintersten K, Behringer R. (2006) “Preparing Mouse Embryo Fibroblasts.” Cold Spring Harbor Protocols. pdb.prot 4398.