Passaging Pluripotent Stem Cells

The maintenance and expansion of undifferentiated pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) in cell culture systems requires the dissociation of cells and their transfer from culture vessel to culture vessel, in a process known as passaging. This chapter includes images acquired from different techniques used to passage PSCs. It is important to minimise the stress to the cells caused by the passaging activity, as this process can promote apoptosis, spontaneous differentiation and culture adaptation. Culture adaptation through selective pressure of cells in culture results in genetically abnormal karyotypes (Chap. 10).