Essential 6 Medium is a feeder-free and xeno-free medium that supports the reprogramming of somatic cells and the spontaneous or directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). In addition, Essential 6 Medium can be used as a base for custom media for the culture of PSCs. The formulation is based on a medium originally developed by Guokai Chen et. al. (1) in the laboratory of James Thomson and published as 'E6.' With only six essential components, Essential 6 Medium helps minimize variability. To complete your workflow with a matching reduced-variability PSC culture medium developed by the same lab, use Essential 8 Medium.

Essential 6 Medium enables:
• Differentiation—does not contain bFGF, which inhibits differentiation
• Reprogramming—does not contain TGFβ, which has a negative effect on reprogramming efficiency
• Flexibility—provides a flexible format where the levels of TGFβ and bFGF can be adjusted and additional components can be added to match a given application

Differentiation
Unlike other media used in PSC culture, Essential 6 Medium does not contain bFGF or TGFβ. As such, Essential 6 Medium can support the formation of embryoid bodies. It has also been used as a base for the directed differentiation of various cell types in the endodermal, mesodermal, and ectodermal lineages (2), including motor neurons (3).

Reprogramming
Essential 6 Medium allows for defined and feeder-free reprogramming when used with bFGF. The formulation supports somatic cell reprogramming using a variety of methods, including episomal vectors (4) and CytoTune (Sendai virus), and is optimized to help ensure maximum cell health and pluripotency with minimal variability.

Flexibility
Essential 6 Medium is xeno-free and contains only the essential components needed for stem cell culture, minus bFGF and TGFβ. This provides a basal medium that will maximize cell health and pluripotency while allowing levels of TGFβ and bFGF to be adjusted and additional components to be added to match a given application.

Commercialized in partnership with Cellular Dynamics International.

References:
(1) Chen G, Gulbranson DR, Hou Z, Bolin JM, Ruotti V, Probasco MD, Smuga-Otto K, Howden SE, Diol NR, Propson NE, Wagner R, Lee GO, Antosiewicz-Bourget J, Teng JM, Thomson JA. Chemically defined conditions for human iPSC derivation and culture. Nat Methods. 2011 8(5):424-9.
(2) Lippmann ES, Estevez-Silva MC, Ashton RS. Defined human pluripotent stem cell culture enables highly efficient neuroepithelium derivation without small molecule inhibitors. Stem Cells. 2014 32(4):1032-42.
(3) Lippmann ES, Williams CE, Ruhl DA, Estevez-Silva MC, Chapman ER, Coon JJ, Ashton RS. Deterministic HOX patterning in human pluripotent stem cell-derived neuroectoderm. Stem Cell Reports. 2015 4(4):632-44.
(4) Yu J, Hu K, Smuga-Otto K, Tian S, Stewart R, Slukvin II, Thomson JA. Human induced pluripotent stem cells free of vector and transgene sequences. Science. 2009 324(5928):797-801.