1. ¹Center for Developmental Biology, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Second Medical University, 1665 Kong Jiang Road, Shanghai 200092, China
2. ²Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
3. ³In vitro Fertilization Center of Women's Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Zhejiang 310006, China

Correspondence: Hui Zhen SHENG, Tel/Fax: 86-21-55570017 E-mail: hzsheng@sh163a.sta.net.cn

Received 2 February 2005; Revised 12 April 2005; Accepted 14 April 2005.

Abstract

Six human embryonic stem cell lines were established from surplus blastocysts. The cell lines expressed alkaline phosphatase and molecules typical of primate embryonic stem cells, including Oct-4, Nanog, TDGF1, Sox2, EBAF, Thy-1, FGF4, Rex-1, SSEA-3, SSEA-4, TRA-1-60 and TRA-1–81. Five of the six lines formed embryoid bodies that expressed markers of a variety of cell types; four of them formed teratomas with tissue types representative of all three embryonic germ layers. These human embryonic stem cells are capable of producing clones of undifferentiated morphology, and one of them was propagated to become a subline. Human embryonic stem cell lines from the Chinese population should facilitate stem cell research and may be valuable in studies of population genetics and ecology.