Previous study demonstrated that the low survival of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) under conventional slow-cooling cryopreservation protocols is predominantly due to apoptosis rather than cellular necrosis. Hence, this study investigated whether a synthetic broad-spectrum irreversible inhibitor of caspase enzymes, Z-VAD-FMK can be used to enhance the post-thaw survival rate of hESC. About 100 mM Z-VAD-FMK was supplemented into either the freezing solution, the post-thaw culture media or both. Intact and adherent hESC colonies were cryopreserved so as to enable subsequent quantitation of the post-thaw cell survival rate through the MTT assay, which can only be performed with adherent cells. Exposure to 100 mM Z-VAD-FMK in the freezing solution alone did not significantly enhance the post-thaw survival rate (10.2% vs. 9.9%, p > 0.05). However, when 100 mM Z-VAD-FMK was added to the post-thaw culture media, there was a significant enhancement in the survival rate from 9.9% to 14.4% (p < 0.05), which was further increased to 18.7% when Z-VAD-FMK was also added to the freezing solution as well (p < 0.01). Spontaneous differentiation of hESC after cryopreservation was assessed by morphological observations under bright-field microscopy, and by immunocytochemical staining for the pluripotency markers SSEA-3 and TRA-1-81. The results demonstrated that exposure to Z-VAD-FMK did not significantly enhance the spontaneous differentiation of hESC within post-thaw culture.
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Research Article|
August 06 2007
Caspase Inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK Enhances the Freeze-Thaw Survival Rate of Human Embryonic Stem Cells
Boon Chin Heng;
Boon Chin Heng
1Stem Cell Laboratory, Faculty of Dentistry, National University of Singapore, 5 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119074, Singapore
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Marie Veronique Clement;
Marie Veronique Clement
2Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 8 Medical Drive, MD 7 #03-15, Singapore 117597, Singapore
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Tong Cao
Tong Cao
1Stem Cell Laboratory, Faculty of Dentistry, National University of Singapore, 5 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119074, Singapore
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Online ISSN: 1573-4935
Print ISSN: 0144-8463
© 2007 The Biochemical Society
2007
Biosci Rep (2007) 27 (4-5): 257–264.
Citation
Boon Chin Heng, Marie Veronique Clement, Tong Cao; Caspase Inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK Enhances the Freeze-Thaw Survival Rate of Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Biosci Rep 6 August 2007; 27 (4-5): 257–264. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10540-007-9051-2
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