Additives and media containing a water-soluble polymer are useful for suspension culture of animal cells, and can suppress the precipitation of medium components such as insulin 5 and the like due to physical stimulation of stirring, shaking, circulation, gas bubbling, or the like in suspension culture of animal cells, and can improve the culture efficiency of animal cells and the quality of cultured cells.

A method of expanding and maintaining human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in an undifferentiated state by culturing the ESCs in a suspension culture under culturing conditions devoid of substrate adherence is provided. Also provided are a method of deriving ESC lines in the suspension culture and methods of generating lineage-specific cells from ESCs which were expanded in the suspension culture of the present invention.

The invention relates to the preparation of a solution of polymer/nucleic acid complexes, and the use of such a solution in methods for the transfection of cells.

Provided are media and methods for establishing and maintaining mammalian early embryo-like cells. The culture media can be used to culture mammalian pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), are chemically defined, and comprise basal media for culturing stem cells supplemented with a S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase (SAH)/Polycomb repressive complexes (PRC)/EZH2 inhibitor and a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor. With the culture media thereof, primate (human and non-human) PSCs can be converted to preimplantation ICM-like cells (ICLCs) or 8-cell embryo-like cells (8CLCs).

Provided are media and methods for establishing and maintaining mammalian early embryo-like cells. The culture media can be used to culture mammalian pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), which is chemically defined and comprises basal media for culturing stem cells supplemented with a S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase (SAH)/Polycomb repressive complexes (PRC)/EZH2 inhibitor, a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor and a WNT/-catenin signaling/tankyrase inhibitor. With the culture media, primate (human and non-human) PSCs can be converted to preimplantation ICM-like cells (ICLCs) or 8-cell embryo-like cells (8CLCs).

Described herein are methods and compositions related to treating cancer using cardiosphere derived cells (CDCs) and/or extracellular vesicles (EVs). In some embodiments, the EVs are heart-derived EVs (e.g., cardiosphere-derived exosomes, CDC-derived exosomes, cardiosphere-derived microvesicles, CDC-derived microvesicles, or combinations thereof). In some embodiments, methods of treating cancer in a subject are provided. In some embodiments, CDCs and/or EVs are administered to a subject to treat cancer. In some embodiments, the CDCs and/or EVs are provided in a pharmaceutical formulation.

The present invention provides a method for producing human A1 astrocytes, which includes inducing human A1 astrocytes from human astrocytes other than human A1 astrocytes; human A1 astrocytes obtained by the method for producing human A1 astrocytes; and a method for evaluating a test substance, which uses the human A1 astrocytes described above. According to the present invention, there is provided the method for producing human A1 astrocytes, which includes a step a of culturing human astrocytes other than human A1 astrocytes in the presence of TNF and IFN.

A method for treating inflammatory diseases is provided. The method may include administering to a subject in need thereof a therapeutically effective amount of isolated extracellular vesicles or exosomes obtained from mesenchymal stem cells pre-conditioned with at least TNF-. The isolated extracellular vesicles or exosomes may exhibit (a) enhanced expression of flotillin-1, (b) enhanced expression of CD73, or (c) enhanced expression of IDO. A method of isolating extracellular vesicles or exosomes capable of treating an inflammatory disease is also provided, wherein the method may include (a) culturing stem cells in a growth medium, (b) then culturing the stem cells in a starve medium supplemented with at least TNF-, and (c) separating exosomes or extracellular vesicles from the culture. Cultures suitable for treatment are also provided.

Provided is a method of preparing chimeric antigen receptor T cells by serum-free culture. The method comprises steps of: (a) providing PBMC cells; (b) performing negative sorting treatment on the PBMC cells to obtain sorted PBMC cells; (c) activating the sorted PBMC cells to obtain activated T cells; (d) transfecting the activated T cells with a viral vector expressing a chimeric antigen receptor, so as to obtain transfected T cells; (e) removing the viruses from the transfected T cells to obtain virus-removed T cells; and (f) subjecting the virus-removed T cells to expansion culture to obtain chimeric antigen receptor T cells.

The present disclosure pertains to compositions comprising aflibercept and methods for producing such compositions in chemically defined media and using chromatography to reduce amounts of certain aflibercept variants.