Since the first report of derivation of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines in 1998, many progresses have been achieved to reliably and efficiently derive, maintain, and differentiate this therapeutically promising cell type. This chapter introduces some basic and widely recognized methods that we use in our hESC core laboratory. Specifically, it includes methods for (1) deriving hESC lines without using enzyme and antibody to isolate the inner cell mass; (2) sustaining hESC self-renewal under feeder-dependent, feeder-conditioned, and defined conditions as well as pluripotency validation and quality control assays; and (3) inducing hESC differentiation to trophoblast with BMP4.
