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Gibco Essential 8 Flex Medium is formulated to extend the activity of key heat-sensitive components found in PSC medium, including FGF2, to enable truly weekend-free culture with a flexible feeding schedule.
Essential 8 Flex Medium is designed to eliminate the need to manage cultures daily which allows for more flexible feeding schedules, including up to two consecutive feed-free days, so that your cultures can be adapted to your schedule.
Essential 8 Flex Medium is a serum-free, xeno-free medium that supports the culture and expansion of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) while eliminating the need for daily feeding schedules (Figure 1). Just like the original Essential 8 Medium formulation, the Essential 8 Flex Medium is xeno-free and does not include BSA (bovine serum albumin) or HSA (human serum albumin) components, helping to minimize batch variability and maintain long-term health and pluripotency of PSCs (Figures 2–3).
Figure 1. Culture schedule comparison. Unlike other feeder-free media, Gibco Essential 8 Flex Medium eliminates the need to manage cultures daily, enabling a truly weekend-free schedule for expansion and maintenance of PSCs. The Essential 8 Flex medium workflow can be adjusted to a once-per-week passage if required to fit existing workflows. Simply change day 1 to a feed day in the workflow above.
Figure 2. FGF2 activity over time in PSC culture medium. Unlike other feeder-free PSC culture media, Essential 8 Flex Medium has been optimized to extend the activity of unstable components such as FGF2. Extended activity allows for routine culture without the daily feeding.
Figure 3. Long-term stability of cells cultured in Essential 8 Flex medium. Healthy karyotypes of pluripotent stem cells cultured in Essential 8 Flex medium have been observed after long term culture of cells.
FGF2 levels widely fluctuate in standard PSC culture medium, even with daily feeding (Figure 4). The use of Essential 8 Flex medium significantly limits these fluctuations, producing more robust, stable culture conditions with the added value of a flexible feeding schedule.
Figure 4. Essential 8 Flex medium limits fluctuations in levels of active FGF2. Measurements of heat-mediated loss of active FGF2 were used to simulate active FGF2 levels in PSC cultures over the course of a week. Standard PSC culture medium (red curve) cultures would be fed on a daily basis while Essential 8 Flex medium (blue curves) cultures would be follow the suggested protocol outlined in Figure 1.
The following components are recommended to create a complete media system for weekend-free routine expansion and maintenance of PSCs with Essential 8 Flex Medium.
For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.