Millipore Introduces New Fluorescing Stem Cell Lines For Non-Invasive Analysis of Differentiation

Millipore Corporation, a leading provider of technologies, tools and services for the global life science industry, today announced the introduction of three new MilliTrace™ stem cell lines, which express green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the control of various embryonic and neural stem cell markers. Due to their brilliant green glow, these cells offer scientists a quick, non-invasive way to monitor the behavior of specific stem cell populations as they proliferate, migrate, and differentiate into various lineages.

The new cell lines feature GFP reporters under the control of nanog (mouse embryonic stem cells) or nestin and Sox-2 (human neural stem cells) transcription factors. The loss of these stem cell markers during differentiation causes down-regulation of the GFP, making it easy to spot cells that have not differentiated.

In 2008, Millipore introduced five human and rodent MilliTrace cell lines, which were the first commercially available, GFP-expressing, karyotypically normal stem cell lines.

“MilliTrace cells are ideal for investigating cell-cell interactions in co-culture studies,” said Louise Rollins, stem cell product manager. “With these new human and rodent lines, researchers have an even larger selection of non-invasive tools to choose from.”

Following transfection with humanized mulleri GFP, every MilliTrace cell line is validated for high levels of GFP expression, stem cell marker expression, and multipotency. The cells are also supplied with an optimized expansion medium to help maintain expression of the transgene. FACS analyses indicate that over 90% of the cells express high levels of GFP even after 10 passages when cultured at normal proliferation conditions. As a result, MilliTrace cells can improve reproducibility and data quality for a variety of applications, including individual assays and high-throughput screens.