The Mouse Feeder Cell Quantification Kit is designed to assess stem cell culture quality by measuring mouse feeder cell (MEF) contamination in stem cell cultures. Mouse feeder cells are used to support the growth and cultivation of stem cells such as hESCs (human embryonic stem cells) and hiPSCs (human induced pluripotent stem cells), but they must be removed before use in certain applications, such as regenerative medicine. This kit provides highly sensitive detection and quantification of genomic DNA derived from residual mouse feeder cells by using real-time PCR to analyze genomic DNA extracted from stem cell cultures.

The Mouse Feeder Cell Quantification Kit includes real-time PCR primers that detect a mouse mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequence, providing highly sensitive detection of mouse feeder cells. The kit also includes nuclear DNA PCR primers for normalization in order to quantify the mouse mtDNA copy number, which can vary between different mouse feeder cell lots, depending on the cell type, cell line, and differentiation state. Calculating the mouse mtDNA copy number makes it possible to compare the levels of mouse cell contamination in stem cell cultures grown with different lots of mouse feeder cells.