Stem Cell Detection / Removal

In ES/iPS cell culturing, antibody-based immunostaining of undifferentiation markers is commonly used to confirm the maintenance of undifferentiated status. Major undifferentiation markers include transcription factors such as Nanog and Oct3/4 and cell surface antigens such as SSEA-4, Tra-1-60, and Tra-1-81. Immunostaining employing these antibodies is widely used to confirm the expression of undifferentiation markers.
rBC2LCN can also be used as a human ES/iPS cell marker. rBC2LCN has a high affinity to the cell membrane of human ES/iPS cells, and thus can be used as an undifferentiated human ES/iPS cell marker just like above-mentioned antibodies. Since rBC2LCN shows little toxicity to human ES/iPS cells, cells can be stained alive and kept being cultured. Furthermore, since cells can be stained simply by adding fluorescent-labeled rBC2LCN to ES/iPS cell culture medium, the stained images of human ES/iPS cells can be acquired more easily and quickly compared to antibody-based staining.