Stem Cells

The human embryonal carcinoma (EC) cell line 2102Ep is relatively nullipotent and expresses most of the same markers as undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESC). It is useful for assay development, as a positive control, and as a reference standard to correlate data between experiments or laboratories.

GlobalStem Inc. has developed a product, 2102Ep Flow Cytometry Standard (GlobalStem cat# GSC-2002S), which consists of 2102Ep cells that have been dissociated to single cells, fixed with paraformaldehyde and stored frozen (-80° C). A vial of these fixed and frozen cells can be quickly thawed and stained with antibodies to common hESC epitopes of interest (e.g. SSEA4, SSEA1, TRA-1-60, OCT3/4) and TRA-1-85, a human cell-specific marker.

The Accuri C6 is ideally suited to the analysis of EC and hESC, especially when minimizing the intra-experimental variation in flow cytometric (FC) analysis is desired. The high resolution (24-bit digital signal processing) and expanded dynamic range (greater than 6 logs for fluorescence and light scatter detectors) of the C6 allow it to function with an absolute fluorescence scale, removing the variability due to detector voltage changes. This greatly simplifies instrument set-up and analysis, and allows the use of analysis templates and pre-set fluorescence compensation values, reducing much of the subjective, operator dependent variation in FC analysis. The completely digital signal processing of the C6 allows the data collection and analysis phases to be separated, reducing the risk of data loss or inappropriate analysis.

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