Cells were passaged by washing the cultures with Dulbecco’s phosphate-buffered saline without calcium and magnesium (DPBS, Stem Cell Technologies) twice followed by accutase (Stem Cell Technologies) treatment. Once the cells were in a single cell suspension fresh medium was used to inhibit accutase activity. Cells were then counted and aliquoted for subsequent experiments. Cell were maintained in medium containing 10 μM Rho-associated kinase (ROCK) inhibitor (Y-27632; Stem Cell Technologies) for 24 h after passaging and then returned to their regular medium.
Human foreskin fibroblast cells (HFF) [64 (link)] were cultured on gelatin coated plates in high glucose (25 mM) DMEM medium supplemented with; 15% (v/v) embryonic stem cell FBS, 1.0 mM sodium pyruvate, 0.1 mM non-essential amino acid and 0.1 mM 2-mercaptoethanol.