TeSR-E5

A defined, serum-free, and feeder-free maintenance medium, this formulation centers on five essential components—insulin, selenium, transferrin, L-ascorbic acid, and FGF2—to deliver long-term self-renewal of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) under cell culture conditions. The streamlined recipe preserves pluripotency marker expression (Oct4, Nanog, SSEA-4, TRA-1-60) while maintaining a normal karyotype over extended passaging, and acts as a cost-effective alternative to higher-protein TeSR formulations in research workflows.

Supplied in a 500 mL bottle intended for research use only, this medium should be frozen at -20°C for long-term storage, with thawed aliquots held refrigerated and consumed within a 6-month shelf life when handled properly. It is free of animal-derived components, reducing batch-to-batch variability and removing the need for a mouse embryonic fibroblast feeder layer. STEMCELL Technologies manufactures this medium alongside its companion matrix substrates and passaging reagents, providing a complete defined workflow for human PSC culture.

Typical applications include routine cell culture expansion before downstream differentiation into cardiomyocytes, neural progenitors, hematopoietic lineages, and hepatocyte-like cells, as well as gene editing, disease modeling, and high-throughput drug screening. The formulation is compatible with standard 5% CO2 incubators set to 37°C and tolerates both single-cell enzymatic passaging and manual clump passaging protocols.