Use in Stem Cell Culture
Removal of LIF pushes stem cells toward differentiation, but they retain their proliferative potential or pluripotency. Therefore LIF is used in mouse embryonic stem cell culture. It is necessary to maintain the stem cells in an undifferentiated state, however genetic manipulation of embryonic stem cells allows for LIF independent growth, notably overexpression of the gene Nanog.
LIF is not required for culture of human embryonic stem cells.
Read more about this topic: Leukemia Inhibitory Factor
Famous quotes containing the words stem, cell and/or culture:
“Apples? New Hampshire has them, but unsprayed,
With no suspicion in stem end or blossom end
Of vitriol or arsenate of lead,
And so not good for anything but cider.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Why inspire in us a horror of our being?... To look upon the universe as a prison cell and all men as criminals about to be executed is the idea of a fanatic.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)
“If you’re anxious for to shine in the high esthetic line as a man
of culture rare,
You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant
them everywhere.
You must lie upon the daisies and discourse in novel phrases of your
complicated state of mind,
The meaning doesn’t matter if it’s only idle chatter of a
transcendental kind.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)