For the PeriTox test method, the cells were thawed and seeded at a density of 100,000 cells/cm2 in 75 μl PeriTox differentiation medium (PDM) consisting of 25% KSR-S and 75% N2-S media supplemented with 1.5 μM CHIR99021, 1.5 μM SU5402, and 5 μM DAPT on matrigel-coated plates (KSR-S: knockout DMEM with 15% serum replacement, 1 x Glutamax, 1 x nonessential amino acids and 50 mM beta-mercaptoethanol; N2-S: DMEM/F12, with 2 mM Glutamax, 0.1 mg/ml apotransferrin, 1.55 mg/ml glucose, 25 μg/ml insulin, 100 mM putrescine, 30 nM selenium, and 20 nM progesterone). After one hour, 25 μl PDM with 4x concentrated serial dilutions of the test compounds was added to the cells. At 23 h after treatment, the cells were stained with SM and incubated for one additional hour at 37°C.
Image acquisition was performed with an ArrayScan VTI HCS (high content imaging) microscope (Cellomics, Waltham, MA, USA).