Small molecules in maintaining embryonic stem cell undifferentiation

Embryonic stem cells self-renew indefinitely while having some potentiality to generate all three germ-layer derivatives.The use of embryonic stem cells as a potential seed cell in regeneration medicine is a promis-ing approach to the treatment of disease and injury.Natural and synthetic small molecules have been shown to be useful chemical tools for maintaining long-term undifferentiated state of embryonic stem cells.In this review,we will look at several small molecules that have been reported in the recent researches as effectors of embry-onic stem cell undifferentiation.We hypothesize that the maintenance of undifferentiation in embryonic stem cells by using small molecules can also make the same effects on those pluripotent adult embryonic-like stem cells.