Feeder-free culture of naive human pluripotent stem cells retaining embryonic, extraembryonic and blastoid generation potential

Abstract

Conventional human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are widely used to study early embryonic development, generate somatic cells, and model diseases, with differentiation potential aligned to a post-implantation epiblast identity. In the past decade, naive hPSCs, representing a pre-implantation stage, have been derived. Naive hPSCs efficiently differentiate towards embryonic and extraembryonic lineages such as trophectoderm, primitive endoderm, and extraembryonic mesoderm, and also self-organize into blastocyst-like structures called blastoids. However, their culture typically relies on mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs), which are variable, resource-intensive, and can confound analyses. We report the long-term maintenance of naive hPSCs in a feeder-free, serum-coated system. We successfully expanded for up to 25 passages 8 different naive hPSCs lines across 5 laboratories. Growth rate, clonogenicity, and gene expression profiles on serum coating were comparable to MEF-based cultures, but serum coating eliminated fibroblast contamination. Naive hPSCs cultured on serum exhibited more efficient germ layer specification, retained trophectoderm potential and high blastoid formation efficiency. Exome sequencing revealed fewer mutations in serum-cultured cells, and mass spectrometry identified extracellular matrix proteins such as vitronectin, fibronectin, and collagens in the serum coating. Overall, serum coating offers a scalable, cost-effective and therefore widely applicable alternative for naive hPSC culture, maintaining developmental potential, reducing DNA mutations, and eliminating MEF-related confounding factors. We believe serum coating will expand the use of naive hPSCs to large-scale studies and facilitate the investigation of mechanistic insights into developmental and disease modelling.