Oct4 is a transcriptional factor from POU protein family. It is one of the most important markers for undifferentiated embryonic stem cells and is required to maintain the self-renwal of mESCs1. Oct4 is also associated with human germ cell tumors2.
PrimCells is proud to isolate and provide to the research community the culture of Oct4-EGFP ESCs from transgenic knock-in mice. These cells were cultured in standard ESCs medium on gelatin coated plates and be used as a powerful tool to examine the mechanism of self-renwal of mouse embryonic stem cells. Oct4-GFP mESCs should be maintained in the stem cell culture medium with LIF to maintain the pluripotent state (Figure 1).
Note: This cell line is puromycin-resistent.
Figure 1. Oct4-GFP mESCs show GFP signals when maintained in ESC medium (Left). The differentiated cells lose the GFP signals in the absence of LIF (Right).
References
1. Loh, Y.H. et al. The Oct4 and Nanog transcription network regulates pluripotency in mouse embryonic stem cells. Nat Genet38, 431-440 (2006).
2. Looijenga, L.H. et al. POU5F1 (OCT3/4) identifies cells with pluripotent potential in human germ cell tumors. Cancer Res63, 2244-2250 (2003).