Cellartis 3i mES/iPSC Culture Medium is a serum-free, defined cell culture medium for the establishment, maintenance, and propagation of mouse embryonic stem (mES) cell lines. This medium contains three selective small molecule inhibitors (3i technology: ERK/MEK inhibitor, GSK3β inhibitor, and FGFR-TK inhibitor) that act to eliminate differentiation-inducing signals and promote cell proliferation, enabling the maintenance of the pluripotent ground state without the need for additional stimulatory cytokines. Therefore, Cellartis 3i mES/iPSC Culture Medium can be used to study the molecular mechanism of pluripotency.

Cellartis 3i mES/iPSC Culture Medium can also be used to establish mES lines from mouse strains that have proven refractory to mES cell derivation under standard conditions (Ying et al. 2008). mES cells cultured in Cellartis 3i mES/iPSC Culture Medium continually expand at a doubling rate that is comparable to that of cells cultured in the presence of Leukemia Inhibitory Factor (LIF) plus serum or in Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) (Ying et al. 2008; Kiyonari et al. 2010; Iijima et al. 2010). In addition, cells cultured in Cellartis 3i mES/iPSC Culture Medium exhibit higher clonogenicity of pluripotent colonies than cells in LIF + serum or BMP conditions.