Comparison of two types of non-adherent plate for neuronal differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells.

In vitro differentiation systems of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are widely used as tools for studies of cell differentiation, organogenesis, and regenerative medicine. We have studied the regulation of neuron-specific imprinting genes, Ube3a and its antisense transcripts (Ube3a ATS), using in vitro neuronal differentiation of F1 hybrid ESCs. Each different non-adherent plate used for embryoid body (EB) formation during differentiation is associated with different costs; notably, plates coated with 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) polymer are more expensive than untreated polystyrene plates. Here, we assessed whether the polymer-coated plates gave better results than the untreated plates. The first stage of differentation was performed in the MPC polymer-coated or untreated plates. The formed EBs were then passaged onto laminin-coated plates for further differentiation into neurons. Neither the neuron-specific imprinting status of Ube3a nor the expression levels of the neuron-specific markers Ube3a ATS and Mtap2 differed between neurons prepared on untreated plates and those prepared on MPC polymer-coated plates. These results suggest that the two non-adherent plates displayed almost the same characteristics for inducing neuronal differentiation of mouse ESCs and EB formation. Our study proved that untreated polystyrene plates are a cost-effective choice for EB formation in in vitro differentiation systems of mouse ESCs.