Fig. 3

Maintenance of pluripotency of mES cells cultured in the nichoid substrates, compared to flat glass and to kidney ECM. Cells were cultured in the absence of a feeder layer and with LIF up to day 3, then without either a feeder layer or LIF from days 4 to 14. a Immunofluorescence for OCT4 (red) and DAPI (blue) on the nichoid (gray), the flat glass and the kidney ECM at days 3, 7, and 14. The scale bar is 50 μm. b Quantification of OCT4 expression by image processing; n = 15, ^* p < 0.01