Abstract
Various studies have been conducted on regenerative medicine, by which iPS cells are differentiated to produce
tissues and organs to be transplanted into the injured sites of patients. Results obtained with mouse ES cells are
likely to be applied to studies on iPS and ES cell differentiation cultures. Mouse MEF (Mouse Fibroblast Feeder)
cells are utilized as feeder cells. Since ES cells are derived from the reproductive organs, such as the uterus and
fallopian tube, MEF cells should be applied as feeder cells to ES cell differentiation culture. Therefore, uterusand
fallopian tube-derived feeder cells were prepared to examine the cardiomyocyte differentiation of ES cells.
EL M3 and ES-R1-EGFP B2/EGFP cells were uterus- and fallopian tube-derived cells, respectively. They showed
higher cardiomyocyte differentiation rates than the control MEF cells, whereas other fallopian tube-derived cells
showed lower rates, suggesting the contamination of heterogeneous cells. Thus, the uterus- and fallopian tubederived
cells also served as feeder cells, some of which were more suitable for cardiomyocyte differentiation than
commercially - available feeder cells, MEF cells.
