JAX® Cells, Tissues & Products: New Offerings
JAX® NOTES Issue 513, Spring 2009
JAX® Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts (JAX® MEFs)
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| Confluent monolayer of JAX ®MEFs used for drug targeting, toxicology screening, and undifferentiated growth of ES cells |
Are you tired of producing, characterizing, and freezing stocks of your own mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs)? Wouldn't it be more convenient to have a reliable source of cells ready to be shipped to you when you need them? That time has come!
JAX® Services now offers three MEF lines derived from JAX® Mice strains C57BL/6J (000664), C57BL/6J-Tg(pPGKneobpA)3Ems/J (002356), and B6D2F1/J (100006). We derived a line from the neomycin-resistant C57BL/6J-Tg(pPGKneobpA)3Ems/J strain because ES cell clones (with a modified gene of interest) used to produce targeted mutants (knockout mice) are selected based on their resistance to neomycin and other aminoglycosides (e.g. geneticin (G418)).
MEFs have several uses, including these:
- As a support matrix and "feeder layer" for co-cultured ES cells (through a combination of cell surface molecular interactions and secretions of soluble signaling factors, they help maintain the ES cells in a state of undifferentiated growth)
- In drug targeting studies
- In toxicology screening assays
- For evaluating gene expression constructs
JAX® MEFs are available untreated for cell culture experiments or mitotically inactivated by gamma irradiation to serve as ES cell feeder layers. Each vial contains approximately five million cells, enough to establish a monolayer in one or two T75 culture flasks.
Save time and money. Obtain genetically uniform MEFs that will give you the reliable results you're looking for. Obtain them from JAX. For more information, contact us at 1-800-422-6423, 1-207-288-5845, or orderquest@jax.org. Or, visit our website.
JAX® Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells (JAX® mES cells)
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| Two colonies of undifferentiated JAX® mES cells growing on a confluent monolayer of JAX® MEF feeder cells |
Do you need a genetically well defined source of mES cells that will give you reliable, consistent, and reproducible results?
JAX® mES cells are isolated from JAX® Mice "J" strains, so you know they are from a reliable source and of superior quality. JAX® mES cells are used by the JAX scientific staff to generate novel strains of mice and therefore have proven germline transmission. Now you can obtain these cells from JAX.
mES cells are used for many purposes, including to construct targeted mutants, to produce populations of specific differentiated cell types, and to conduct pharmacokinetic studies.
By producing a targeted mutant with mES cells of the appropriate genetic background, you can eliminate the resource-consuming process of backcrossing the mutant to that background. Because most researchers require a targeted mutation to be on the C57BL/6J (B6) genetic background, we are offering mES cell lines from two JAX® B6 strains: C57BL/6J (000664) and B6 albino - B6(Cg)-Tyrc-2J/J (000058). Additionally, because more and more researchers are finding the BALB/cJ strain a useful genetic background (due to its unique differences in gene expression compared to C57BL/6J), we are offering an mES cell line from BALB/cJ (000651).
mES cells are increasingly being used in pharmacogenetics and in cell type-specific differentiation to generate difficult-to-isolate cell populations. Using JAX® mES cells, you can generate such cell populations, saving vivarium space and complementing your studies in whole mice. For more information, contact us at 1-800-422-6423, 1-207-288-5845 or orderquest@jax.org. Or, visit our website.
