Stem Cell Characterization

Stem cell cultures growing in any standard well plate format can be quickly scanned and assessed using the Celigo, greatly reducing the time and effort needed to characterize these complex cultures. Whole-well brightfield and/or fluorescent images are rapidly acquired to allow analysis of stem cell culture health, differentiation status, and splitting times/ratios. Celigo can also be used to evaluate the expression of stem cell-associated proteins. Cultures can be observed over time by repeated imaging of the same plate to monitor the progression of reprogramming and differentiation events. Stem cell culture analysis on Celigo confers several advantages:

• Rapid, whole-well imaging of stem cell cultures (96-well to 6-well; scan an entire 6-well plate in ~10 min)
  
• Images acquired and stitched in brightfield plus up to 3 fluorescent channels
  
• Tracking of live stem cell cultures to analyze differentiation status
  
• Analysis of staining patterns using live and fixed stem cells
  
• Eliminate tedious collection and analysis of images with conventional microscopy

Stem cell characterization on Celigo. Whole-well (6-well plate; left) and zoomed images (middle, right) of hiPSCs stained with characteristic stem cell markers.

hESC image acquisition on Celigo. Live whole-well (12-well plate; left) and zoomed images (right) of hESCs. Images courtesy of B. Nelson, N. Kan, M. Mercola, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute.

Reprogramming monitored on Celigo over time. Live whole-well images (12-well plate) of reprogrammed human fibroblasts.